The Amnesia Years
by Anni Re
Summary: The sequel to The Children. Everything is not well in paradise as the family is being torn apart by a strengthening arm of Viktor, drastic actions are taken, unlikely friendships are formed, and a person you thought long gone is back with a bang.
1. Wanderer

The Amnesia Years

Chapter One: Wanderer

By Anni Re

I was once a god, herald among the greatest creatures of midnight, the immortal keeper of time. There was never a grain of the uncountable years that did not pass through the sieve of my hands. I was the right hand of the greatest vampires of the world, and the ear of a being greater still.

But I fell, oh, how I fell. How did my life fall to this?

I am, but yet I am not. I exist but yet I do not. I am dead, but yet I endure.

So I will endure. Here in the halls of time before my hand did script them I search, for meaning to this half-life, for the truth of what I have done to myself, for the key to this lock to unleash what I once was.

But until then so I shall be a lost Wanderer for all eternity.

* * *

To the fans of The Children: I Anni Re, am giving you a gift I know some of you have ardently wished for, yet never thought was possible. THE SEQUEL TO THE CHILDREN. Behold its 'teaser trailer'.


	2. Disputed

Chapter Two: Disputed

The growing dawn was as quiet as the night before it. The quiet was laced with dread. Sonja looked out the window, her tired eyes searching the shadows in between the trees, seeking even the smallest movement. Lucian had left at sunset with four others and had yet to return. Sonja feared why he had yet to come home, feared that her father's ever strengthening arm might be behind this delay.

The pale sun rose over the horizon, creeping ever closer to Sonja's delicate skin but she didn't care, or even notice, her eyes still searching.

A large set of hands gently rested on her shoulders, pulling her backwards. "Mother, come away from the window." Antony gently coached his mother away from the growing sunlight and into a chair beside a table on the opposite end of the room. Antony smoothly and silently walked to the other chair and sat in it, his sister languidly leaning against the wall behind him.

Sonja looked out of the corner of her eye at her children. She smiled at the memories of how they grew up from infants to what they were now. To what they were when she first saw them. But, however, they were not exactly the same. They lacked memories they had as unborn, all that they were, all that they had done together were still lost, and would be until the time lines of the unborn and her children had meshed into one mind. There was also one other thing that separated one set form the other. The garden of paradise was in a drought. Her children had grown up in a war-ravaged life running and fighting the legions of their grandfather. Sonja saw in her son the tenseness of his being, of living such a life, oblivious why. What she saw her daughter troubled her more, she was not acceptance of this life, but resignation to it.

The trio heard movements outside, the rhythmic motion of padded feet. Illa raised her head slightly. "They've returned."

Sonja leapt out of her chair as if there was a spring in the seat and scrambled to the door.

Lucian limped up the stairs to the fortress, filthy, tired, and bleeding, conscious of all the anxious stares he and his others were getting. The light warmed his frigid, sweat covered skin and he sighed in relief that he somehow survived the night. He heard the heavy doors open and he looked up. Sonja swiftly glided down the stairs, he dark hair flying behind her, her wide eyes fixed on him.

"Lucian," she said in relief darting towards him, and the sun, his children seconds behind her. Lucian sucked in a breath in alarm and caught her chest in his palm to keep her in the shadows of the fortress and away from the day. He then curled his fingers into the folds of her dress and pulled himself up the stairs to her, pressing his jaw hard on her lips. Sonja wrapped her arms around his neck, Lucian just kept his hand ensnared in the fabric, his other hand hanging limp at his side. Sonja gasped and pulled back slightly and saw the crimson stained them. She looked at her husband but Lucian was not looking at her, his head resting in the center of her collarbone.

"Lucian…"

Lucian turned his head in a way that his ear was resting on Sonja's suprasternal notch and looked wearily at who was addressing him. "Yes, Raze?"

"Where do you want Jelicho and I to take…" he trailed off.

Lucian closed his eyes and Sonja saw the slight crinkles at the corners of his eyelids as he tightened them. "The armory," he murmured.

The dark lycan, glistening with sweat nodded once and began walking away, the smaller lycan following his footsteps. Both of them with bodies draped over their broad shoulders.

Antony grinded to a halt and watched with suppressed fury and grief the lifeless forms of his brothers pass by him, their limp bodies marred with deep gashes and puncture wounds some cutting to the bone. Antony turned and followed the dead ignoring the return of his father and the reunion the rest of his family was having with. Lucian watched him leave and sighed pushing himself away from his wife and his daughter who had just gotten to his side and slowly followed his son.

Raze and Jelicho placed the dead upon the long, wooden tables that were in the armory and left passing on either side of Antony's still form before passing through the door. Antony with an impassive face walked over to his fallen comrades and looked at their faces, splattered with blood, he knew these faces, knew them well, just like all the other pale faces with eyes that would never open again he had looked on in recent years. He heard the slow thumping of feet and he caught the scent of his father. He didn't have to look up to know he was leaning against the doorframe watching him. Antony put his hand on the forehead of one and tried to recall the eye color hidden by the thin coating of skin. To his dismay, he could not.

"These men had fathers and sons," he said to their still faces. Antony then looked up and stared at his father. Lucian stared back at him with weary eyes. "I know," he said softly.

Lucian heaved himself off the beam that was part of the door and made his way over to the tables and looked at the bodies. "They were good men," he said, "lead good lives."

"Lives needlessly cut short," retorted Antony sharply. "What was it this time?"

Lucian sighed. "Another ambush," he said.

Antony let out a sigh that was more or less a hiss, running his hands through his hair looking at the ceiling. "Your war brings nothing but widows and orphans," said Antony, returning his attention to the dead.

"My war?" retorted Lucian. "No Antony this is Viktor's war. These men are victims of a megalomaniac."

"These men are victims of a family feud," said Antony darkly.

"Oh Antony not this again," said Lucian.

"You send men out to die for our family, for Illa and I, while the two of us are caged her by night. I am tired of that, tired of this life." He slammed his fist into one of the tables. "I'm tired of death while we could so easily return to Viktor an live."

Lucian snarled in the back of his throat. "It is not that simple. You cannot possibly understand."

"Your right," shouted Antony, a snarl ripping through his mouth as well. "I don't." He glared pointedly at whom he did not understand.

Lucian let out a low growl and Antony firmed up his stance, egging his father on, both sets of skin rippling in and out of their forms in their anger.

Behind them both men herd a soft sigh that sounded almost like a whimper. Lucian twisted his head around, his electric blue eyes returning to normal and Antony leaned to see around Lucian's body. Illa was watching them, had been watching them for quite some time. Her eyes were conflicted as if she was accepting this occurrence and dismayed that the previous was not the last. She tucked her lip into her mouth as if biting it and jerkily left her standing place and went up the unseen stairs.

Illa walked into her mother as she did. Sonja looked into Illa's eyes and immediately knew what was being disputed and by whom in the armory, but before she could question her, Illa darted around Sonja and continued up the stairs.

Sonja finished walking sown the stairs and looked irritably into the room to see Lucian and Antony staring at the spot where Illa once was. Antony and Lucian snapped their faces back to each other and shot fiery glares at the other. Antony huffed and walked out of the room, shoving Lucian's shoulder in the process.

Lucian growled and turned sharply around in pursuit of his son but Sonja caught his chest with her forearm and barred his way. Lucian let out a long steady breath to calm himself. He looked at his wife and his eyes softened. He bent his neck down to her and kissed her lips. He kept his forehead on hers but his eyes wandered over to the door. "It was so much easier when they were children."

Sonja let out a weak watery laugh.

Illa was sitting in the center of her bed in her room. Her head was tilted back looking at the ceiling. Her knees were tucked into her chest and her arms encircled them. She did not say a word, barely seemed to breathe. There was a knock at her door and she closed her eyes. "Go away, Antony."

"It is not Antony, milady," said a different voice.

She turned her head to the door. "Come in, Jelicho, please."

Jelicho opened the door and came in. The lycan strode with a well-built body, dust colored hair falling across his grizzled face, caramel colored eyes looking curiously at him.

"You went with my father this evening?" asked Illa.

"Yes, milady," answered Jelicho moving forward a step and then at the last minute pulling back.

"And you were not hurt?" she queried.

"No, milady."

Illa nodded her eyes her eyes looking down at the fabric that lay across her bed.

Jelicho nodded to himself glancing at Illa once more before slowly backing towards the door.

"Jelicho," Illa looked up at him, "I am glad you have returned safely."

"Thank you," he said then he closed the door, "Illa," he sighed softly to the paneling. He reached up and stroked the barrier between Illa and him in one languid, tender movement before turning and walking away from the door

Lucian lay stretched out on the bed with just a long shirt on, his wife hovering over a long gash cut into his thigh. Lucian watched with his teeth set as Sonja sewed the wound.

"Sonja," he said, "do you think that we should tell them, who they are, where they came from?" Lucian suddenly hissed through his teeth and only through force of will not jerked his leg away from Sonja. She gave an apologetic glance and continued.

"Lucian, the children told us that one day they would know, perhaps it is best to let that day come on its own."

"But they don't understand. Antony…and Illa." He looked at Sonja. "I just think that if they knew it would be easier for all of us. We have told them so little about why we are here, and why Viktor, their grandfather, is the way he is. The very loophole that made life possible for them, for us."

Sonja's face was unreadable, focused on her mending. "We know so very little about what they were before they were born," she reasoned not looking up at Lucian, "if we told them, they would have so many questions which we could not answer. That may hinder more than help them. When the time comes, and the lives mesh, they will know so much more about themselves through that then what we could ever try to explain them."

Lucian nodded in begrudged agreement.

"There," said Sonja tying off the string, "finished."

Lucian smiled at her, stretching his leg to test the muscles. "Thank you, my love." He moved to get up but Sonja tightened her grip on his thigh just above his wound.

"Lucian," she said, her voice low and sultry, "you kept me waiting and I was so worried.

Lucian's heart jumped and he let out his breath. He reached up and put his fingers in her raved hair, twisting and twirling them around his calloused digits. "I seem to recall when you did the same to me."

Sonja gave him a coy smile. "I apologized for that."

Lucian chuckled deep in his chest, almost making it seem like the room vibrated in tenor toned pulsations. "Well, he whispered, "I must be fair." Lucian gently pulled Sonja's head by he locks of hair wrapped in his hands until her body was pressed t his chest and her lips were pressed to his.

Illa slept lightly in her room, the sunlight shining into her room through the thick, glazed glass of the window. It was day but not yet noon and the light played in the contours of her sleeping face, and also emphasized the shadow of a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth. Illa's scream was silence by the hand. The body leaned over and she heard Antony's voice in her ear.

"Quiet, sister. Come with me."

* * *

Hey everyone I'm back!


	3. Departed

Chapter Three: Departed

Antony's hand was firmly placed in the small of Illa's back as he silently guided her down the stairs and through the courtyard. Each time Illa tried to open her mouth to speak he gently placed a finger over her mouth and pressed her onward more firmly. The twins reached the gate of the fortress and Antony walked in front of his sister and began to ease the large gate open, mindful of the shrill shrieks the hinges could cause. Illa watched her brother, the secretive way that he moved, and finally spoke.

"What are you doing," she asked, addressing his back.

"I'm leaving," he said not turning around to look at her. Antony heard his sister gasp. She shifted her feet as if his statement made her even uncertain of the ground she stood on.

"Your leaving," she said stunned, "where, why?"

Antony finished opening the gates and turned back to his sister, the look in his eyes beseeching. He placed his hands lightly on her shoulders. "Illa, all of our lives we have been shielded from the world, protected from a past no one will speak about. Brothers fight and die for us, and I refuse to stand by and let them any longer. I need to find my own way. I want to end this feud." Antony turned and leapt away from Illa's body turning into his hybrid form in mid-air, landing gracefully and silently on his paws. He bounded forward in one long stride, his taunt muscles rolling under his bruise colored skin which shimmered in the sunlight already fading towards the west. He turned sharply yet smoothly, the leaves rustling around his feet. Antony looked at Illa, his ink colored eyes wide with silent pleading.

Illa read him easily, as if his thoughts were her own. "You want me to come with you," she said.

Antony's eyes whispered yes.

Illa looked at her brother, and then looked over her shoulder at her father's fortress, her home for all of hr life, the home that somewhere within her parents slept, unaware. Illa heard Antony whimper and she sighed through her mouth. Finally she turned on her heel towards her brother, in that turn turning. With a tilt of her body she fell forward and sprang after her brother who was already dashing through the trees.

The sun faded into the western horizon and darkness draped itself over the world, and in that stillness chaos reigned. The news and the panic that followed that Illa and Antony were missing spread like a savage wildfire incapacitating everyone that it touched. Lucian stormed out of Antony's empty room, slamming to door furiously behind him, angered at his ineptness and Antony's cleverness at not providing any hints as to where he was going. A lycan, one of the members of the scouting party sent out, was standing in the hall. Lucian approached him.

"Any news, Krystal?" he asked, an undertone of begging in his voice.

He shook his head. "No Lucian, we found no trail, no scent. Your son has a gift with tracking." Lucian did not need to be reminded of that. He growled low in his throat, frustrated and desperate he walked away. "Lucian," Krystal called out to his retreating figure, "You and your son quarreled, did you not?" Lucian jerked to a halt as Krystal carried on. "Perhaps…perhaps he has only left for a day, to calm down. Perhaps he will return soon."

Lucian didn't speak for a beat, then slowly, deliberately, turned around. "Tell me this," he said icily, his eyes clouding over slightly as he walked towards his brother. "If Antony was returning in a day, then why did he take the one he holds dearest along with him?" Lucian was shouting by the end of his sentence, his face inches from Krystal's, who had his dark claws extended from his fingers to defend himself against his leader if necessary.

The air was tense of a long moment before Lucian sharply pulled back his head and much more slowly turned and re-walked down the hall more angry and afraid not with the lack of information of where his children were, but that they were not coming back swiftly. Behind him, Krystal dared to breathe and watched his claws shrink back into his fingertips.

Lucian walked, unaware of where he was going but unconsciously searching, following his acute sense of smell and the tug of his heartstrings until he stopped in front of Illa's door. Quietly he pushed it open.

Sonja sat in the center of her daughter's bed, her knees tucked into her chest, her chin resting on her wrists, blank eyes staring out at nothing. One hand was pressed between her legs and torso, palm pressed, fingers splayed digging into the fabric of her clothes over her stomach in silent longing for her children she once carried as if her womb ached because she did not know there whereabouts.

The anger lines on the lycan's face softened, replaced by paternal love and husbandry compassion, closing the door even more quietly behind him. He walked to the bed and climbed into it, shifting his wife into his cross-legged lap. Lucian pulled Sonja's hand away from her abdomen. She turned her hand and laced her fingers with his. Only then did she move, molding her body to his, resting her cheek on his collarbone. "I would rather not have had our children then to have them taken from me now."

Lucian nuzzled the top of her head. "You don't mean that," he soothed.

Sonja numbly shook her head. "I can't live without them." Her face suddenly twisted and Lucian had to wrap an arm around her body to keep her from collapsing on herself. "He'll kill them if he finds them."

Lucian closed his eyes tightly and tightened his grip on Sonja as she sobbed brokenly into his shoulder. He could offer no words of comfort to her, because he could give none to himself.

Antony and Illa ran long and hard yet there movements were somehow ethereal and effortless. They ran for miles across the land never stopping, never growing weary, Illa following Antony as he barreled relentlessly forward. At last when the waxing moon was high in the sky Antony began to slow no longer running but searching. Illa looked along with him wondering what drew him to this place. Antony broke through the trees slowing down even more, pushing himself up onto his hind feet changing to his human form as he did and stopped at the edge of a cliff, his grey-green eyes looking down into the valley. Illa turned as well and walked up to him looking at her brother's sharp profile. When she reached his side she followed his gaze. And gasped at what she saw. Down on the far side of the valley seemingly built from the face of the rock itself was a dark and ominous castle, age had not degraded its ferocity but rather enhanced it, making it seemingly an immortal figment of terror. She had heard whispers of the castle from the older lycans enslaved long ago with her father in its hold. She heard her mother scream in terror on restless nights when she slept because the castle had seeped into her dreams along with the man who ruled. Her grandfather.

Illa gasped and skittered back a few steps. She snapped her head up at her brother her eyes wide. "You go to him?" she asked harshly.

Antony held his gaze on the castle. "I have to meet him, Illa. I need to. I have to see what this life can bring us." He looked at his sister. "A life where we are not running, not fighting, not dying. Don't you understand what he can give us if we let him!" Antony took a step forward, but Illa stepped back slowly shaking her head. "I would follow you brother, but I will not follow you there."

Antony's face dropped then faded into an impassive state. "Then sister we have reached an impasse, for I will go."

Illa and Antony stared at each other for a long time silently conveying their wills to the other.

"Take care of yourself," said Illa softly knowing there was nothing she could say to sway him.

"Likewise," he said, knowing the same thing. And the children that had departed from their parents departed from each other, one journeying to the valley, the other retuning to the woods.

Illa walked in her human form, wandering as the night grew brighter with the breaking dawn, her strength and will spent and no longer having her brother's fervor to follow. Exhausted she began to slow and stumble.

"_This way,"_

Illa's weary mind snapped to attention her tired body rearing to turn.

"_Fear me not, I am no harm to you. You are weary. Follow me."_

Illa looked around and saw no one and smelt no one, not even sensed anyone, but she could hear the raspy whisper of a voice. "Where are you?" she asked.

"_Questions later when you are more rested."_

Illa still stood where she was.

"_Hear me," _said the voice, _"and follow."_

Illa paused for a moment then closed her eyes. Her ears followed the voice and it led her blindly where it wanted, guiding her through the woods.

"_Open your eyes," _commanded the voice gently.

Illa opened them and she was in front of a building, again carved from the stone it was on. In the pale light she could make out that it was a monastery.

"_Enter,"_

Illa did, but the voice stopped her quickly. _"Sleep here for now," _it said, _"You are weary, you must rest now."_

Illa did not contradict the voice, so tired she almost believed this was a dream. She lay down on the floor, slumber nearly taking her instantly.

"_Yes," _the voice cooed as much as it could with such a harsh, raspy tone, _"sleep, Worry not in your dreams. I will watch."_

"And who would you be," yawned Illa already fading from consciousness.

The voice seemed to take pause for a moment, pondering, _"Andreas."_

And Illa fell into her dreams.


	4. Archives

Chapter Four: Archives

Illa stirred slightly, then settled again into her slumber, only to awaken again when she felt the rough stone beneath her face. She tensed at the unfamiliar surroundings of the cavern like monastery she was in. A pale light filtered through the door a few feet away from her. She blinked and stared at the light as she recalled the evening before, the flight from the turmoil of their ancestry, and consequently their flight from each other. "Antony," she whispered softly. She wondered if he had been brazen enough to enter the fortress of their forbidding grandfather. She wondered if his doom had already been laid. A sisterly bond pulled her rested body from the ground and back towards her brother.

"_No, do not go."_

Illa turned on her heel, tight as a spring again, lips curled back and fingers rigid. "Where are you?" she shouted, frustrated that she could not pinpoint the body that belonged to the voice.

"_Nowhere…and yet, right beside you."_

Illa took a step away from where she was standing looking slowly around, yet the apprehension was falling away from her, replaced by cautious curiosity. "What is this place?" she asked the air.

"_My home," _said Andreas, his voice seeming to walk towards her. _"It has been my home for nearly a century."_

Illa followed Andreas, or rather the voice of Andreas, away from the light from the door. "Why do you live here in this monastery?"

"_For what is below it," _he said. Andreas seemed to pass over to the back of the monastery, pas like he was carried on a breeze over the pews and the pulpit. _"Come," _Andreas beckoned, _"open this door."_

Illa walked up the isle towards where Andreas was as she got closer she could see with her acute eyesight the makings of a thick wooden door laced with tarnished metal cleverly concealed in the stonework. She extended a hand and opened it. What lay behind it was a thin spiral staircase tunneling down into the earth longer than even her eyes could see.

"_Illa," _whispered Andreas, _"hear me, and follow."_

Illa imagined the body of a man descending the stairs a little ways then pausing, turning back up and looking at her with expectant eyes. Illa let out a breath and descended behind the non-existent body.

Illa went deeper and deeper into the ground following the seemingly endless spiral of the stairs until she reached a door, a door not as magnificently enforced as the one above, but one that no doubt was much older than the one above.

"_Open it."_

Illa did and she beheld rows upon rows of ancient books, all covered with a fine layer of dust and darkness of the room forever deprived of sunlight.

"_Welcome to the archives," _said Andreas, _"and also the reason why I brought you here last night."_

"Why do you need me here," inquired Illa following the sound of Andreas as he wandered about the stacks. "And what exactly are you?"

Andreas seemed to pause to weigh his words before coming over to Illa. _"I hardly know myself," _he admitted. He laughed a little, a dry false laugh. _"I have come to call myself a Wander, a soul with no body, for the body is already dead, yet the soul is not. So it is doomed to wander the earth forever, for a soul with no body cannot pass onto the next plane."_

"You have much knowledge on this subject."

Andreas seemed bemused by this comment. _"It is knowledge I fashioned for myself, from my…limited experiences on the subject and also reading the spines of the books. Which is why I need your help."_

Illa tilted her head, confused. "Why would you need my help?"

Andreas laughed a real laugh this time. _"A disembodied spirit can hardly turn pages, can it?" _Illa imagined the absent body of Andreas passing a hand through the shelves.

"_Illa, if you help me, I may be able to put myself back in a body. But I can't lift a finger without someone to help me." _Andreas began begging, so close to just the beginning. _"You may not have to stay here for long, and I have the means to sustain you. I believe I now where to start…"_

"I will stay and help you," said Illa gently cutting him off.

Illa could see the voice smile at her in gratitude. _"Thank you," _he whispered softly.

She nodded towards where the voice was sounding. The turned back and looked over her shoulder back up the stairs. "Is this close to the fortress?"

"_It is far enough away for us to not be noticed, yet close enough for you to get to. Why?"_

Illa paused, the nervousness she felt a few minutes ago returning. "I want to be close to my brother."

The voice of Andreas seemed alarmed by this. _"Your brother has gone to Viktor?"_

"Yes," murmured.

Andreas come up behind her, his voice comforting. _"Your brother is strong, Viktor will tread delicately with him."_

Illa let out a breath that seemed to calm her fears. "I hope you are right." She turned towards the underground library that within its leaves could be Andreas' freedom. "Let us begin."

* * *

Hey guys I'm back. Sorry I haven't updated in forever and a day but I was writing two stories at once it was too overwhelming, so the other one came first so I finished that one first. But now I'm back. Sorry that it is so short and a little dry, but I needed to get back into the story and this bit was rather straight forward the next chapter will be much much better. I'm really glad I'm back into the story. Review please and I will love you.


	5. Unforeseen

Chapter Five: Unforeseen

Antony watched his sister fade away through the thicket listening until he could no longer hear the sound of her footsteps. HE turned his head and steeled himself, steadily, determinedly, descending from the steep hill into the valley.

Antony lost sight of the fortress through the canopy and could hear nothing save the sound of his breathing. The unnatural silence set his body on edge. His eyes clouded slightly sharpening his senses and sharpening the tips of his fingers.

The hybrid passed out of the tree line and beheld the fortress of in all of its intimidating glory. The smooth stone shone like polished onyx in the night, set afire by the pale light of the half moon. Above the wall rose the fortress seamlessly welded onto the rock, dim lights peppering the darkened windows, unseen eyes staring at their unforeseen guest.

Antony walked; bold as brass, across the open plain, his eyes unwavering from the gate. He stopped a few feet in front of it. He felt the presence of the beings within, felt their curiosity, their resentment. He heard a soft hiss rise from behind the wall. He growled at the gate that was still closed to him, unnecessarily announcing his presence. Antony chuckled at the gate continuing to bar him, closing his eyes and shaking his head, as if he were merely amused.

It was as if a switch had been turned and Antony sobered up, his small grin dropping into a snarl. He phased, morphing into the bruise colored hybrid that his beneath his human form. Using this rush of strength he stepped back and lunged, leaping into a high arc through the air and landing, nimbly as a cat, upon the battlements already back in his human form, but his black eyes still shining savagely out of his face.

The black eyes stared at the faces of the pale and beautiful beings that were waiting for him that reminded him of his mother; save these faces were not sweet bust scary, jaws open, teeth bared, gleaming silver weapons swinging in their hands. Child's play.

Death Dealers rushed towards him from either side on the narrow walkway on the battlements. The one on his right bore a spear, the one on its left, a sword. The right thrust the spear towards his middle. Antony easily stepped back avoiding the blow. With both hands he grasped the wood of the spear at the base of the harmless metal and pulled it, along with the vampire that it belonged to up over his head and brought both down upon the body of the vampire on his left. The hybrid heard a vicious snarl as another on his left and right came at him. With a swift jerk he pulled the spear out of the first vampire's hands twisting it in his own and with a second jerk ran it into the third vampire. Antony with great force pulled the spear sideways out of the Death Dealer's body, tearing out just above the hip, and swung it to this right cutting a smooth gash in the final vampire on the battlements neck.

With the battlement cleared he leapt into the square, where a group of another vampires were, landing almost silently on the balls of his feet on the flagstones. Antony did not pause, in the same smooth motion he charged the first vampire that stepped towards him, the only one that stepped towards him, as if he was there leader.

The dark haired man jumped, his hand outstretched towards Antony's neck. Antony spun to the right, his massive arm wrapping around the vampire and hurling him to the ground. Antony stood over him. "I want to see Viktor."

The vampire's brilliant, blue eyes widened for a second and he heard the vampires soft whispering behind him as if he had said something unfathomable. Antony twisted his head behind him and growled softly, and they fell silent. He heard a loud hiss a second later. Antony jerked his head back forward to see a pair of soles coming toward it as the vampire that lay on the ground kicked up at him. Antony bent backwards until his back was horizontal to the ground, the vampire's feet passing harmlessly above him. Antony roared and with his right hand he grabbed one of the vampire's legs just below the knee and wrenched it down towards the ground. The momentum pulled the vampire up to a standing position. Antony pulled his own body up and with an open hand he struck the vampire hard in the center of his chest, feeling the air rush violently out of his lungs, sending back onto the ground he was on seconds before, save now he was very well dazed, both arms falling out to his side leaving his whole body exposed. Antony leaned over him, his right hand raised, dark nails sprouting from the tips of his fingers, reading themselves to dig into unprotected flesh.

Then, Antony heard a whistle, faint, yet with every passing moment growing stronger. Antony knew the whistle and with a twist of his wrist his hand that was in the air was not turned down but sideways, catching the arrow that sung through the night air towards him a few inches from the side of his head.

"Well done."

Antony heard a single set of footsteps coming towards him. He looked to his right towards the arrow, his hand clutched around the base of its silver tip. Beyond it, he beheld a man. A man dressed in dark finery, passing through the small crowd that parted before him, in his pale, long hands carrying a crossbow made of dark wood, his electric blue eyes staring down upon him. Antony stood as well, and looked for the first time upon his mother's father. "Viktor," he said, in a low soft voice.

The vampire Elder, nodded once, needlessly confirming the assumption, the electric blue eyes never leaving the onyx eyes that were returning to their natural color. The slowly he turned back around, his neck the last thing to turn in the direction he had come from, in the motion handing off the crossbow to one of the Deathdealers. He began to slowly walk away, and taking his cue, Antony followed passing through the crowd that inched away farther from him, than they did from their lord. Their lord spoke, not bothering to pause, or turn his head. "Pick yourself up, Kraven."

Antony looked over his shoulder at the dark hair man on the ground. Kraven, stopped the motion of getting off the ground and glared daggers at him, shoving off the hand that helped him get up. Antony turned back around and continued to follow Viktor.

Viktor walked them up through the tall winding halls of his parents past until they reached a room. Without a word Viktor pushed open the double doors of it. The room was part of Viktor's apartments and standing in the room was a young woman. Viktor spoke to her. "Leave us, Selene."

The young woman bowed her head in consent. "My lord," she said softly. As Selene walked by, she looked up at Viktor's guest who followed a few steps behind him. Antony almost gasped at the dark hair, pale skin, her bone structure of her face, even the size and shape of her eyes, all an uncanny resemblance to his mother, Sonja.

But Antony did not have time to dwell on that for long because soon Selene left the room, and Viktor closed the doors behind her. Antony did not fail to notice that he locked the door, and how subtly he attempted to do it. He felt his body go tense.

Viktor walked to the window in the room, parting the heavy curtain that blocked out the sun in the say. He looked out over the square that he was in moments ago, and across the plain, pimpled with boulders. Viktor stroked the tips of his fingers with his thumb in slow caresses, and when he spoke Antony did not know if it was directed at him or to himself. "A remarkable feat, Antony, defeating my best soldier, remarkable indeed."

Antony opened his mouth to give him the reason of his presence, and to ask if he would be allowed to remain in his. "Viktor, I seek a better life for my sister and myself, one that is peaceful with you. I ask permission to stay here, to prove my worth, to make you believe that there is no reason to be warring my father because of us."

Antony could not see the contemplating look on Viktor's countenance, or the small smile that stretched across his face afterwards. "Dawn is approaching, and I shall retire until night comes again." Viktor walked over to another set of double doors leading on the rest of his rooms that appeared to be only accessible by the room that they were now in. He opened the doors and finally looked back at his grandson. "Guard me well, Antony," and he closed the doors.

* * *

yay I put Selene and Kraven into the story, go me! And no i did not just put them in there for the sake of it, they will have partially important roles. Review pleeze.


	6. Second

Chapter Six: Second

Antony, in the company of the vampires, knew not of how much time he had spent with them, for time meant little to them and so it did with him. Perhaps he was because he guarded the castle during the morning hours while the vampires withdrew that he was able to piece together that he had been at Viktor's castle in a time measurable in weeks. He often wished to speak to Viktor, but the General spoke to him sparingly or otherwise avoided him, which the hybrid found strange since it was he who opened his arms and welcomed him into his stronghold.

Viktor did however give his grandson quite a bit of freedom, which gave Antony hope that perhaps soon Viktor would listen to appeal for piece between he and his father. He missed them, all of them, especially his sister. His twin was his greatest bond and perhaps one of the greatest reasons that he had parted from her to embark on this mission. He did not want her to grow up in constant fear, he did not want his mother to be torn about fighting her own species, to constantly be waiting for her husband to return in the mornings, he did not want his father to die, or anyone else.

Viktor's leniencies with Antony allowed him to acclimate himself to his new home, which he did. He explored the place his parents were raised, fell in love, and eventually escaped from. Antony was impressed with the design of the place because he never seemed to become lost, almost as if he had lived her before.

The only vampire that he regularly spoke to was Selene, whom he supposed Viktor had assigned to look after his upkeep. However there was another who did not speak but made his presence known to Antony. The hybrid sensed Kraven presence wherever he went watching him from the sidelines studying him, in the same way the Antony studied everything else but never since that first encounter had he engaged him.

It was near the middle of the night, and the new moon made the flames of the torches on the walls grow bigger and brighter, a hell for the undead creatures. Antony watched in the shadows a crowd of Death Dealers begin to grow in the opening in front of the armory. Two stepped forward out of the circle and the rest stepped back a hush falling over them. The two death dealers stared at each other one low snarl each passed through the pale thin lips. Antony heard the cold whisper of metal sliding out of a sheath and he inclined his head over to them as the vampires drew their weapons and raised them over their heads.

The blades swung down and crashed like thunder the titans made beneath the earth and the mob cheered like war mongering fools. Antony leaned his head back against the stone wall that supported him a small smile passing over is face. Sparring. Antony watched them from where he was as they fought, remembering his own extended family doing just this on quiet days. He noted who different the vampires were to lycans. They attacked each other with an airy grace, each blow flowing flawlessly into the next like water through a river like how is mother fought when ever she played in the packs games of war, how she had taught him how to fight.

Antony flexed his military arm switching from praising their fighting style to their fighting skill. They style was different from the lycans he had watched all his life; their bodies had sharper yet slower moves. Each action a lycan made had a small amount of delay time because their hulking masses had to realign itself for another blow. The technique worked well against another lycan the stranger eventually prevailing over the weaker, this method could even be successful against one vampire their sheer force overpowering the vampires reflexes and agility. Yet against more than one, Antony saw how his people could be corralled and killed so easily, for years being under the thumb of the vampires. And yet, Antony noticed something. Armed with the knowledge that vampires in a group were a significant threat to a lycan, he saw that the death dealers were lazy, overconfident in their skills and numbers. It seemed as if they were merely play acting, not training. Antony growled low and deep in his chest. The warrior in him was angered that any battalion we think such a way, and the lycan in him was insulted that the death dealers believed that his kind were so easily dealt with.

The Death Dealers unaware of Antony's calculating gaze upon them, jeered the immortal gladiators on bunching in and backing out in chaotic intervals to watch. Eventually one of the onyx clad soldiers got the upper had of his opponent and began battering down his defenses. The vampire knocked the sword out of the other's hands, sending it clattering with a sharp screaming across the uneven ground. The victor pushed he other back into the crowd and waited for another challenger to step forward and take his place.

They heard a rush of air and the Death Dealer's stopped moving listening intently wondering what it was. Antony had turned into a completely lycan form and jumped high over them and landed on all fours in the center of the circle his hales raised, fur tufted, and long canines exposed. The Death Dealers that were closest to him leapt back while the others let out an angry hiss through clenched teeth. Antony pushed against the ground with paws that would be his hands and raised himself so that he would be standing on his back two legs. But as he rose, the fur receded revealing bruise colored skin, his body became more human, yet still retained the dark claws and muscle mass of the beast just beneath the surface. His eyes darkened from the electric blue to the midnight color of his hybrid form.

Antony lunged forward at the vampire who just barely processed what had just happened. Antony ducked under the blade his hands wrapping around the hilt. He twisted upwards, the hilt raised above both their heads, his back turning to his chest and he raised his foot and pushed the Death Dealer in the chest. The Death Dealer was launched backwards by Antony's foot back into the onlookers, easily catching himself before he landed on his back just in time for him to see Antony turn back around to face him. Antony raised the blade and with a sharp snap of his wrist he sent it spinning through the air to his right. The Death Dealers watched as it embedded itself in a door just outside their group, the metal quivering in the wood. They returned their gaze to the creature before them. Antony raised his hand and curled his fingers, beckoning them.

Two of them sprang forward drawing their swords as they challenged him. Antony widened his stance his muscles rolling in preparation as they moved for him. The solider on hi left placed both hands on the hilt of his sword and raised it above his head, bringing it down in a sharp descent. Antony bent back over his spine and easily dodged the blow, the blade harmlessly passing in front of his face as well as the head and torso of the vampire as it accommodated itself from the attack. Like a viper, Antony shot out his hand, his fingers curling like a steel corset around the vampire's throat. Antony drug the vampire down to the ground by his neck, holding him there.

The Death Dealer behind him aimed a blow at his neck but Antony heard the air let out a small cry as it was cut through. With the other hand reaching out behind him without even looking he grabbed the flat of the blade and pulled it from him. With his foot on the chest of the vampire on the ground he pivoted so that he faced his assailant, simultaneously standing up and yanking the blade out of the attacking vampire's grip. In the same motion that pulled it out of the Death Dealer's hands Antony brought it back to him, striking him across the face with the hilt, sending him reeling back into the crowd. Leaving Antony in the center of the circle turning the blade so that he now held the hilt, the second vampire still pinned underneath his foot.

Antony looked to see out his next challenger and his face grew impassive as the crowd parted to reveal Kraven staring at him a long blade at his side. Antony's brow hardened. In a smooth deliberate motion he stepped over the Death Dealer that lay on the ground, who quickly placed himself within the mob and without any formalities or delays the two combatants swung at each other. Around and around they circled each other throwing blow after blow into the silent darkness of the night. The mob did not breathe a word their eyes trained on the two masters as they dueled in silence speaking only with the fiery flashes in their eyes and the ferocity of their swords.

Kraven swung at him and Antony ducked effortlessly but the vampire miscalculated the arc of his swing and the swiftness in which the hybrid reacted. Antony reached up from his crouched position on the ground and grabbed Kraven's wrist forcing him to release his sword. Antony then lunged forward and pushed Kraven away from him, slamming him into the stone wall behind him. The sword, which was still in its fall to the ground during this exchange, was caught by Antony without him needing to look at it. As he stood he twisted both blades in his hands as he brought them behind his back and then tossed them like throwing daggers. The blades lodged themselves in the divisions between the stones and Kraven's neck seemingly caught in a pair of scissors. Antony grabbed the hilt and began pushing them towards the wall, lessening the gap between Kraven's neck and the crossed blades.

Antony heard the hiss of a blade exiting a sheath and with a snarl he spun and grabbed it before it touched him, the edges cutting into his skin. He started when he saw the face of his attacker. Viktor. Viktor tugged on the hilt of his sword and Antony released it. The general placed it back into his sheath before addressing Antony. "Come," he said and without another word her left. Antony nodded silently to his back. He unconsciously he flexed his hand and the cut the raced across his palm sewed itself back together.

Antony turned back to Kraven still pinned to the wall and he placed his hands on the hilts. He paused for a moment and for that moment everyone held their breath. But in one sharp motion he yanked the swords out of the wall releasing the vampire's neck. Antony walked away carrying both swords, phasing back into his human form as he did, very aware of Kraven's glare boring a hole through his back.

Antony followed Viktor until they were both back inside the stronghold, both of them in silence until Viktor broke it when they were away from all ears. "I appreciate your ferocity when training you soldier's," he said without turning back to face him, still walking onward to his unknown destination, "but you need not kill you lieutenant." Antony stopped where he was; staring slightly slack jawed at Viktor's receding back. When he found his legs again he was running up to his grandfather.

"Lieutenant?" he asked looking at Viktor's profile as they both walked.

"Yes," the Elder responded. "I am placing you as the head of the Death Dealers. You are a capable leader, a remarkable warrior, and," he paused and looked at Antony, and his blue eyes ran over the hybrid's face perhaps seeing all that he loved, and all that he hated in it, "you are my grandson. I have the right to spoil you."

Antony responded. "Thank you."

Viktor nodded and with a flick of his hand he dismissed him and went off towards the council room, while Antony went down a hall farther back and retired to his own apartments.

Antony's room was adjacent to Viktor's connected by large heavy double doors banded with steel. The doors made him believe that the room he was in was his mother's room while she lived here. Antony wondered why Viktor had placed him here, in a room that he himself symbolized the angst between Viktor and Sonja. Antony tired on that first night that he was here to open the door but found that it was locked and could only be unlocked from the other side.

Antony looked at the doors when he entered his quarters from speaking to Viktor, but he did not linger on them for long for his mind was filled to the brim with other things. Viktor had given him his coven's army, and Antony did not understand why. He also had to be out upon the wall within the hour for the sun was rising, and Viktor had also charged him with watching the wall during the daylight hours while the vampires slept.

Antony heard a knock at his door and then the low groan of the hinges moving as the door entered and the soft sounds of someone stepping into the room.

"It's almost dawn," said a voice.

"I know Selene." He responded. Antony turned and looked at Selene who was closing his door.

"I heard that you are now the commander of the Death Dealers, Viktor must trust you immensely."

"And why would be trust me?" Antony asked.

Selene tilted her head to one side, surprised that he would not know this. "Antony, being he commander of the Death Dealers means you are second to Viktor himself in control of the coven. When Amelia is awakened and it is Viktor's turn to sleep. Viktor trusts you to manage that affairs of the coven until he awakes again, two centuries later."

Antony's eyes widened, and he forgot all that he had to do for that day. "I need to speak to Viktor, now," he said trying to push past Selene.

"He is in Council," Selene said holding onto his arm before he could leave the room. "Why must you speak with him?"

"Because I am now on a time schedule," he said. "I have to finish what I came her to do before Viktor sleeps."

"What is it that you came her for, Antony?" Selene asked him gently.

Antony breathed out a sigh. "I came here to attempt to bring peace between my family and this coven, to stop this warring between us, to stop the death on both sides. But I cannot because Viktor will not listen to me."

Selene did not speak and Antony looked at her easily reading the thought s behind her eyes. "You do not share my opinion." He paused again and his brow hardened. "You think lycans should be exterminated."

"Lycans killed my family. Viktor found me before they did and drove them away. He made me a vampire that night. Why should I not bode ill will towards those that took everything from me?"

"Vampires tried to kill my mother because I was going to be born," Antony countered, "and she is one of their own. Should I hate you for that?"

Selene did not answer so Antony continued. "I am both species, and I need to heal the rift between them.

Selene looked up at him. "When you do," she said. "Will you leave?"

Antony looked at her and nodded once. "Yes."

Selene looked down but Antony did not notice for he had turned back into the room. "Oh," she murmured softly. "I thought…that you wouldn't want to leave." The vampire sensed the sun rise over the hill; the half vampire sensed it too. "It is morning now," she said, louder than before attracting his attention. "I shall sleep now."

Antony looked up Selene. "Good night," he said. And she withdrew.

Kraven an hour from then repeated all of that to Viktor who had exited council, the Elder sitting in his stone throne, the other standing off to his side. Kraven concluded his story. "I believe Selene is falling in love with him," he hiss enraged that this half-breed had stolen Selene from him without even knowing it.

Viktor sharply turned his head towards Kraven. "What?" his icy voice state. His eyes turned to a murderous shade of blue.

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Sorry this took so long every one I have been really busy but this should hopefully pick up now that i am on christmas break. Merry Christmas everyone!


	7. Return

Chapter Seven: Return

Day after day beneath the earth in the vaults beneath the monastery Illa new nothing of time or anything that had happened beneath the celesteal center pieces in the sky. All she knew was stacks, endless volumes of frayed spines, fragile papers, and faint images in the books Andreas had yearned to open. Andreas had searched for years for suc a place, a hollow containg the forbidden arts and anals of immortal time lost to humans and their cares and concerns. He followed such a hollow here beneath the church and took up residence, reading what little he could read on covers and scraps to discern its secrets, secrets he could finally expand upon now that Illa was here.

The days that Andreas and Illa spent together followed a certain schedule. Illa woke to find Andreas waiting for her and he called out to her when she had risen. Illa followed the sound of his voice and he instructed her to pull one of the texts off the termite infested shelves. She balanced the book on her hand and he ravenously devoured the words that may save him from this life. She followed the words but he was quicker or perhaps more desperate. Every few minutes Illa heard as she read behind him the slight clearing of his throat and the command for her to turn the pages he could not touch. They continued this for some time until Illa heard Andreas sigh and tell her to shut the book. Andreas drifted into silence after that, sometimes for the rest of the day; and when a new day came the cycle repeated itself.

Over time, the rigidity of the schedule lessend. Illa began to predict his needs so she didn't have to always be at the ready. She laid a large book out on a table for Andreas and took a few steps back. Andreas was silent, but it was a tense unnatural silence his invsible being hovering over the pages.

Illa leaned up against the shelves her fingers running over the books behind her back. The tips of her fingers caught one and she pulled it out as she passed over it. She exaimined it, her fingers running over the dry cracked leather. Gently she flicked open the cover. Her fingers ran over the ornate, faded caligraphy that painted the page more than the faint images. "What is this?" she asked.

Illa felt Andreas walk up behind her and lean over her shoulder. _"Lycan records,"_ he said nonchalantly his voice drifting away as he returned to his endeavors, "most likely for Viktor's menagerie."

Illa looked sharply over toward the open book, peeved that Andreas inadvertently called her family a collection of zoo animals, yet she was curious and the supposed records in her hands. Gingerly she turned through the pages one after the other until her eyes settled on a name, her father's name. Illa stroked the letters that formed Lucian's name, her fingers lingering on each other the letters, she noticed that the name was underlined with a dark streak an indicator of his importance that would be proven time and again in the years he spent under their domain.

A sound pulled her away from the records as she scrolled down again finding more familiar names that were people in her father's pack. She looked up unconsciously, temporarily forgetting that she would not be able to see him_. "Close the book,"_ Andreas said wearily she pictured him pushing his body away from the table.

Illa walked over and closed the book. _"No,"_ said Andreas stopping her, his voice sharp betraying his emotions. "Close it," he said; emplacing the words, _"I'm frustrated." _ Illa opened the book biting back a half smile and forcefully slammed the cover shut, the pages quivering to a standstill. She felt Andreas' presence withdrawing away from her. She walked forward a few steps but paused, for Andreas was silent and she could no longer tell where he was.

"What are you looking for, perhaps I could do more than I am to help you."

Andreas spoke, when he did she jumped for he was right at her ear and she turned around to where his voice was coming from. Andreas' vice still carried the sharpness of his present frustration but blended with the voice of a man weathered by time. _"If only I knew what I sought,"_ he said. _"An answer to…this, yes. But where? When? I suppose I am looking to see if this has ever happened before and what was done about it…if anything was done."_

Illa looked down at the book she held in her hands, a book that contained a detailed set of records. She extended the book to his invisible form. "Why do you not search this book, surely if what has happened to you has happened before a writer would have mentioned it."

Illa heard Andreas chuckle. She painted a picture of his face creased with smile lines placing one hand lightly on the pages and leaning over the book into her face. She unconsciously drew her face back a little. _"My sweet,"_ he said his voice dangerously smooth, _"why would I thumb through my own writings?"_

Illa jerked her head up sharply despite the fact that the person she was speaking to could not bee seen. "You wrote this," she asked incredulously one finger pointing at he pages.

"_I did indeed, for a long time, a long time ago."_

Illa paused. "Then you are a vampire," she stated. Andreas noted that her body tensed up at that realization.

"_And that alarms you my little mixed breed?"_ he asked silently pointing out that she too was part of the same species as he.

Illa relaxed slightly "No," she said slowly still cautious all the same. "I have just never met another one before, besides my mother."

Andreas did not respond as if he was thinking about something or perhaps he was merely looking intently at her recalculating her with his scholarly gaze.

Illa continued, her curiosity suddenly peaked. "You wrote of Lucian, my father in your records, you must have also known of Viktor."

"_Viktor…"_ Andreas' voice trialed off into silence.

"What is he like?"

"_The fact that you know nothing about Viktor is very disturbing to me,"_ he said, _"however I suspect that he is not really a desirable conversation factor when speaking to your mother, the Lady Sonja and…"_ he seemed to struggle with the word selection, _"him,"_ he said stiffly. Andreas saw Illa look at him exasperatedly and he let out an apologetic laugh. _"Forgive me, old prejudice."_

"Please," Illa asked again.

Illa imagined him tilting his head to the side slightly, lacing his long fingers together as he pondered his reply. _"Viktor,"_ he said slowly as if he was testing the weight of each word, _"was unlike any other being I have ever known. He was…is…a great leader. He was so eloquent…so commanding. We would follow him anywhere, even to death he held us so with his regality his poise, his iron, unbreakable will. And we too held him. He would give anything in all the world to protect his people, to preserve our ways. He was…a fearsome general…and an even fiercer father," _he paused and looked at Illa. _"Never before was a father so in love with his child."_

"What happened?" Illa asked softly. For a moment Illa could swear she saw faintly the color of Andreas' eyes he stared at her so fixedly.

"_She broke his heart, and he became greater and more terrible than anything our nightmares could ever imagine."_

Illa was awed at the reverence that dripped from Andreas' voice and the disgust that the voice also carried for such reverence, yet Illa wondered why he should be remorseful for the way he spoke of her grandfather it was easy to understand how and why he gained such reverence and fear. The way she imagined Andreas' face when he spoke of Viktor proved it. The way his eyes, that constantly carried a certain shade of the bright blue both species shared, lit up, the way his sharp jaw moved so languidly and so deliberately as he rolled out his words through a set of pale thin lips that plumped whenever he spoke……

Illa swallowed, long and hard and looked away from where she knew Andreas was standing. "I'm sorry you have not found what you seek," she said formerly her eyes cast firmly to the ground away from the one she could not see.

Andreas walked up to her incapable of making any sound but for the way her muscles subtly tightened he knew she could tell he was moving closer to him. _"It is alright,"_ he said gently, softly, like an evening breeze. _"It is a comfort just to have you here with me, a person to talk to. I have been alone for so long, longer than you may think. So thank you, again. Again, and again."_ He laughed a small genuine laugh. _"You are quite an engaging child,"_ he complimented. _"You are you parents child, really,"_ he continued as he saw her muscles relax_. "You have your father's ability to cross lines that were drawn by greater men so fluidly, and you have both you parent's spirit and passion…and you have your mother's grace…and beauty."_

Illa could sense him close to her looking down at her, his writings long ago cast aside.

"_I want to kiss you."_

Andreas was so forward and hi request came so far from left field, yet for Illa believed that this was the moment the conversation was always cumulating to, what their time to together was cumulating to from the start. She looked up at air. "You may," she whispered.

Illa heard Andreas breathe out a sigh. Her ears flicked as she sensed a presence by her cheek going back and forth over it like a hand gently caressing. And then she felt a sensation like a droplet of water running over her lips.

Andreas sighed and dropped his hand away from her face. _"If only I could feel you,"_ he said. There was no anger in his voice it was like he had been cleansed and it washed away down the river. But it left more blatant than ever the depths of his despair. He drifted into silence, and drifted away from her.

Illa felt him leave and she slumped into the shelf behind her and slid to the ground her heart hammering its way out of her chest. She looked up at the book of records that was lying on a nearby table. She reached up and grabbed it. Up against that shelf she read Andreas' catalogue of the endless years he served under Viktor, not absorbing the meaning of any of the words, merely memorizing the way he wrote the letters with their dips and arches on page after page. She was around the end of the book when for a page his writing stopped and covering the entirety of the leaf was a dusty image. She cocked her head to one side and with the broad side of her hand gingerly brushed away the years of grime from the image. She gasped at what it revealed. It was a miniature portrait, a portrait of Viktor sitting on his throne of stone with his daughter standing at his side.

Illa looked at Sonja, the woman before she was her mother, the woman that carried a dark secret in her heart carefully concealed from the man beside her. But Illa's eyes did not lie on her mother for long instead they drifted over and rested on the intimidating form of her grandfather. She ran her finger over his face familiarizing her self with its shape and features Andreas' words running across the back of her mind. Andreas said he knew no other man that was like her grandfather, yet Illa knew of one, her own father. She closed her eyes and looked at her future if she chose to keep Andreas in her heart. She reasoned with herself that it would be very likely that Lucian would be just as antagonistic towards one of Viktor's coven as Viktor was of Lucian himself. She asked herself if she could put her parents through that uncertainty and fear for a man she was falling in love with.

Her eyes snapped open. She was falling in love with Andreas. She was falling in love with a man that didn't exist.

She put her hand over her face confusion and doubt wrapping around her once sure assessment. She looked down at her mother who stared sightlessly back at her. She missed her mother, missed her parents. She needed them now, and she did not want to divide her family any more. A small tear subtly fell from her eye as she spoke to the room. "I have to return. I have to go home Andreas, and I'm sorry."

Andreas did not speak. He had no need for sleep so he had watched her all night and realized her eventual conclusion long before she came to it, it pained him the thought of being alone again, the thought of ending his search to abruptly perhaps never to begin again, the thought of her leaving him. Yet when she spoke he saw her tear and took what little comfort he could from it and remained silent yet watchful amid the stacks at she ascended the stairs to the world above the earth.

It was day and Illa had to blink to acclimate herself to the brilliance of the sun that she had not seen in only it knew how long. Once she could see, she stepped out into the sun a relished its warmth, in the heat of the sun she morphed darkening her skin and eyes phasing her arms and legs into her hybrid form. She stretched her long dormant muscles and ran.

She ran all day towards the setting sun and when the dark read ball hit the horizon she saw her long awaited home gleaming in glowing scarlet. She stopped and stared at, barely upsetting a leaf upon the ground. She smiled her onyx eyes reflecting the fire in the sky until it had fully departed from the world. A tremor ran through Illa, her body retuning itself to the passing from day to night. She inhaled tasting the wind with her nose and sensed her brothers and sisters were awakening. She heard them and her heart longed for them, for two in particular.

Illa morphed into a completely lycan form. She tilted her head to the sky and let out a long cry. When the note ceased she heard not a thing, it was if the entire world had stilled, stunned. She waited. Illa heard a pounding upon the earth, a gallop. Through the tress sprang froth powerfully and gracefully a lycan, his dark fur highlighted with silver starlight. The beast rolled to a stop, his muscles rolling underneath his skin his claws digging into the soft earth in front of her.

Illa's eyes widened at the sight of the lycan. "Father," her eyes whimpered at the lycan who stared at her as if he couldn't dare to believe what he was seeing. Illa whimpered out to him.

The dark lycan moved making a beeline towards Illa and wrapped his neck around her head digging his face into her shoulder holding her tightly. Illa still in her lycan form pressed her face into his chest and the lycan licked her ear.

Illa hummed from happiness as Lucian welcomed his daughter home.

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I deserve a medal. I got this done at 12 43 on a monday night because I live you all. Sorry this took so long. I rewrote the story without taking away what I had already written and it took FOREVER! Anywho hope you like it. REVIEW! Happy MLK Day


	8. Follower

Chapter Eight: Follower

I was once a vampire, a demigod of enduring night. A cunning, masterful creature. Yet here I am, reduced to a dog…a dog! A mindless Follower of a creature that I once swore I would hate…a creature I cannot help but love.

In silence I pinned for her as she ascended to a world that was meant for those that could live in it, a world I could barely survive in now, and I left with her parting hidden by the trees as she ran, though my very lack of being hid me well enough from her, floating along the wind as she ran.

Oh how she ran with power and grace in a never before seen combination. My mind flickered to her brother and for a moment I wished him well, even though it was in seeking his death that my own life was ended, by a being greater than the both of us. I will hate him for both of us, all three of us, since neither can yet remember.

She stops and cries and I listen to her music knowing the when she remembers she will hate me. Her father, who now runs to her, embraces her, will not give me welcome or protection, and soon I may not receive hers. Yet sill here I am…a dog following his Mistress, his longed for lover.

I turn and return to my darkness. A darkness even blacker than night.

And I hope you will never remember, and I hope you will never forget.

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Yay!! Chapter Eight! Review pleze and I will write the next chapter faster to encourage you to review here's a little spoiler. Lucian and Viktor will be at the same place during the next chapter and Lucian is mad, really mad


	9. Impasse

Chapter Nine: Impasse

Luciana looked at Illa who was now ensnared in the arms of her mother, reveling in her daughter being returned to her. He leaned up against the wall and smiled as Sonja took Illa's face in her hands and kissed her forehead. Lucian was keenly aware of the other lycans looking on at their reunion yet he did not care if some of his authority had been taken away by he and his wife's blatant show of affection, Lucian had his child back, or at least one of them.

Illa turned in her mother's arms and was released by them and walked over to her father. Even though Illa was no longer partially an other-worldly being, nor did she have any recollection of when she was, Lucian always marveled at her ability to seemingly glide over the floor, as if she wasn't even touching it. Illa leaned into her father's chest and looked into his eyes. "I missed you," she said.

"And I you," he responded. He tugged her on the shoulders. "Come with me," he whispered. He looked up at Sonja and nodded at her to indicate that she should follow them. Lucian guided her through the throngs with Sonja following them. Lucian, out of the corner of his eye, saw Jelicho make a motion to follow them, her, as well. He looked down at Illa whose eyes had just turned back to the front her face suddenly rigid. Neither father nor daughter commented on the action, or Illa's reaction to it.

Lucian opened and closed the door which lead to a smaller room that served as a study that was an annex to the anterior. Lucian sat down Illa in a chair that was paired up with the table which Lucian now leaned upon. Sonja stood behind his shoulder. "We were very worried about you, Illa," Lucian stated. Illa cast her eyes down and nodded. "I know," she said to the wood, "I'm sorry."

"Where did you and your brother go, Illa?" Sonja asked. The vampire read the sudden hesitancy that flickered over her daughter's face. "We just want to know," she added gently.

Illa laced her fingers underneath the table and looked up at her parents. "About one day after I left," she began, "he brought me to where he lived because I was tired. Later when I was refreshed, he asked me for my help."

"He asked you for your help?" Lucian repeated incredulously, "Why?"

Illa paused. "Help him turn pages of books," he murmured knowing how asinine that statement just was.

Lucian did not speak for a moment his face twisting into a mask of confusion as he digested this information. "Who exactly is this man? Lucian asked finally

Again Illa fidgeted in her seat as she struggled to describe something she was not entirely sure of herself. "He used to be a vampire…one of Viktor's coven he said." Lucian stiffened and Illa sunk down a little into her chair. "But I'm not entirely sure what he is…now."

Lucian cocked his head at his child studying her with a calculating gaze. "Now," he stated with an undertone of demand for elaboration.

Illa nodded, "Sometimes I can sense his presence, if he is very close to me, but other times, he is no more than a voice." Illa paused and remembered the feeling of her phantom's barely present lips crossing over her. "His name is Andreas."

Both parents stiffened, Sonja's fingers digging into Lucian's shoulder, barely breathing and Lucian managed to choke out the continuation of his interview. "Andreas?" he asked both confused and concerned.

"Do you know him?" Illa asked.

Lucian nodded once. "I believe your mother and I do—"

"And you left your brother there?!"

Sonja's voice, which was in a higher register than normal drew the attention of both her husband and her daughter. Illa looked up at Sonja while Lucian touched her hand that hung down at her side.

"I did not leave Antony there," Illa said. Lucian and Sonja's sigh of relief came out in a rush but was jerked to a halt as Illa continued. "Antony was never there."

Sonja and Lucian's faces who had been staring at each other's snapped to Illa's. "You separated?" asked Sonja, shocked that her children could be apart from each other.

"I was with him," Illa explained, "but I did not wish to follow him to where he was going."

"Where is he Illa?" asked Lucian. Illa sunk down in her chair and cast her eyes away from him the motion in her hands increasing. Lucian's eyes narrowed and he knew that this was something Illa was going to dance around. He pulled away from Sonja and bent over the table his palms splayed on either side of his daughter. "Where is your brother?" his voice commanded.

Illa pulled the words from herself, hesitantly, reluctantly, all the while refusing to look into Lucian's eyes. "As far as I know," Illa whispered, "Antony is with Viktor."

"What Lucian roared, or at least that is what he would have voiced if he had remained in his human form for that long. Lucian phased into his lycan form fast and violently, so violently that Sonja jerked her hand away from his shoulder and Illa spun out of her seat, both staring at the snarling quivering beast that was in front of them. Lucian spun and swiftly left the room prowling low to the ground almost as if her were stalking or hunting steadily picking up speed. Lucian physically parted the crowd that had gathered behind the door with his presence, the others hastily getting out of his way as he passed through the room and out the front doors. They heard the steady thudding of his feet drumming the ground as he ran until they faded into nothingness.

Illa stared at her father until she heard no more of him and she finally moved from where she was frozen since he had phased, loosened her fingers from around the wood, and dared to breathe. Her breath was the only sound in the silent rooms. Stiffly, she turned her head and looked at Sonja. "Mother," she said, "he _wanted_ to go."

But Sonja didn't move, didn't speak, didn't hear, her wide eyes trained to where Lucian had gone.

Viktor's fingers dug into the stone armrests of his throne as he digested the information just given to him by Kraven. Selene, his surrogate child, the one he dared to allow to fill the place of his first, had fallen into the sin of the original, to add insult to injury it was not just any beast, it was his son. He closed his eyes and quietly dismissed Kraven back to the wall. He wondered if Selene loved him, if he loved Selene, he wondered if history was going to repeat itself…as it should have. A muscle twitched in his face.

Outside Kraven leaned up against to great wall that stretched out across the plain, barring the fortress from the forest. His eyes like shards of ice scanned the blackness his body was as tense as his master's within jealous over Selene's preference to him, enraged over who that preference was. Kraven was not an immortal when Viktor's daughter lived among the coven but he had head the whispered rumors of the love affair between Sonja and the creature that some dared to call Viktor's adopted son. He also heard of Viktor's fury—a fury he still held caged within him that Kraven was keen on fanning.

"Sir."

Kraven jerked out of his thoughts and looked at the Death Dealer that had spoken, yet he was not looking at his officer. Instead, he was looking out to the trees pointing one long pale finer at them. Kraven followed his point which was aimed at the trunks of the trees. There was a shape flickering betwixt them.

Lucian charged the felid and like a bullet shot towards the fortress. What was once a silent sentry now snarled at the oncoming lycan their eyes blue, fangs extending some even leaning out over the wall in animalistic challenge. But Lucian barely acknowledged them, he saw past them to the person he really wanted to see. He leapt off the ground readjusted his body and landed as if her were two-legged, swiftly he phased back to his human form on impact, extended upward arching back and dropping his jaw.

"VIKTOR!"

His voice boomed over the fortress echoing his summons over and over again. In the dark anterior still sitting upon his throne Viktor's eyes opened the blue shining eerily through the darkness. Lucian stood staring up at the wall of pale faces steadily growing in number seeking out the one familiar one, as well as the darker face of his son. Neither were to be found.

Lucian's ears pricked up at the deep rumbling of shifting gears and the heavy doors opened slightly. Through the gap a single figure passed his face passive but his eyes piercing. Lucian growled deep in his chest, his stance widening, his fingers elongating.

Viktor scoffed at the display. "So it is true," he said silkily, almost pleasantly, "a dog does return to his master."

Lucian growled audibly at that and on its heels was a low collective hiss from the collection of vampires that gathered above them. Viktor did not turn back to them but raised his hand lazily and they ceased instantly. However their eyes continued to burn holes into the lycan that was so brazen with their leader. "Where is he?" said Lucian quietly.

"Where is who," asked Viktor, baiting him.

Lucian ground his teeth restraining himself from phasing. "Antony," he said, "He is here, isn't he?"

Viktor nodded silently.

Lucian breathed out in relief uncaring if Viktor saw it; his son was not killed on sight. "Give him to me."

Viktor laced his fingers together and stepped towards the lycan. "I would if I could; you know I am not fond of dogs in my house. However, it is not me who is keeping him. Your son stays here of his own violation."

Lucian didn't' say anything but the way his eyes turned away from Viktor's countenance, and the form of his own face told Viktor that he was not aware of that. The Elder chuckled advancing on Lucian. "Startled are you?" he asked as he began to circle the lycan commander, "shocked that your son would choose a life I could offer?" He paused. "I'm not surprised though," he whispered, "Who would not choose a life of security, a life without fear or constant flight in the face of your enemies, who would not choose to protect them and their sister, and not be against me?"

Lucian's eyes flashed. "Illa does not trust you, you will never get her."

"Yet your daughter trusts her brother and your son trusts me. She will come in time, for you know as well as I they are not whole without the other." Viktor finished circling, concluded the interview and began to return to the opening in the great doors of the wall.

"They have no memory yet," Lucian shouted desperately. "They still don't remember all that they are."

Viktor paused but didn't turn all the way around to face his once adopted son. Instead he turned just enough for Lucian to see the profile of his face. "I don't care."

Lucian roared almost falling to his animal side. His eyes clouded over and his canines sharpened and he lunged forward. "My son, Viktor!"

Viktor turned just as impressively his palms forward fingers curled body tensed for Lucian's imminent attack. "My daughter, Lucian!" he shouted, at last addressing him by name. "Finally you the pain of having a child stolen from you, of having it turn against you!"

"Sonja loves you!" Lucian countered loudly.

"And I hate you more," Viktor responded quietly, wispily yet is still carried the sharp tones of Lucian's bellow, "so corrupting your children will bring no qualm to me"

Viktor spun on his heel and smoothly retreated into his hold.

"Viktor!" Lucian called after him, chasing him.

"Bark away dog," Viktor called over his shoulder. He faced Lucian in the wooden orifice a pale spider of a hand clutching either door. "You can only scratch at the gate." Viktor slammed the doors in Lucian's face which were soon pummeled by his fists. But as Viktor smirked and walked away from the gate he paused for Lucian's cry of outrage was not the only sound he heard.

Antony who was in his room heard his father's summons. He ran with added hybrid speed and anger until he reached the wall, yet he did not stop at the wall but leapt over it landing well behind his father. Antony turned sharply his feet upsetting the earth and face Lucian, unaware of Viktor's recent dispute or he and his parent's exchange.

"Why are you here?!" Antony yelled his predatory stance deepening.

The lines of Lucian's face hardened and his ever clouding eyes flashed an eerie luminescence. "To bring you back." His tone took no argument.

"Then father," said Antony smoothly, "we have reached an impasse for I am not going back to you, to a life of running, of fighting, of dying, however I intend on bringing Illa here. She will be safe here, prosperous. Even mother, I will redeem her in the eyes of her father. I can redeem you by proving I am not a threat. Don't you understand?"

"Don't you understand that these are flights of fantasy? You don't remember yet who you are, how this came about."

Antony stalled for a moment a quizzical expression crossing over his face, but it passed quickly. "All the same," he said.

"All the same," Lucian responded.

Antony nodded his head saddened but his eyes still angry. "As you wish," he said softly. They began walking in a circle wither one on the opposite rim their bodies tensing in preparation unconsciously rippling between both their forms abandoning diplomacy for the alpha code. Antony's face quickly morphed into a mask of savagery his anger returning in his drive to remain. Lucian's face remained impassive.

At this point Viktor reached the top of the wall materializing beside Kraven and they looked out to the circling lycans. Kraven did not look at Viktor, yet he spoke to his lord as he watched. "It seems we are to be treated to a dog fight," he said off-handedly.

Viktor chuckled darkly and nodded. "So it would seem."

Antony growled low in his chest his white teeth flashing. Lucian paused and firmed up his stance in challenge. Antony feinted to the left and Lucian followed him. At the distraction Antony lumped high and aimed a blow at his father's neck. Lucian's quick reflexes saved him and he rolled underneath him. He rolled out into a crouch and Antony landed nimbly, dust rising from the earth around him. Antony spun sharply his teeth shining as he bowed his head and charged Lucian. The lycan caught the hybrid in his chest with an open palm, his nails digging into his skin. With a bend at his elbow Lucian pushed Antony backwards away from him, causing Antony to land on his back. Antony looked up at his father who waited, the son barely keeping hold of his human form and Lucian still calmly within his.

Antony let out a sound of frustration and folding his legs back onto his torso and flipped himself onto his feet, in the process turning into his hybrid form and once again made an attack on Lucian. Antony attempted to uppercut Lucian with his clawed hand but Lucian smoothly dodged it, with the other arm Antony tired to swing down on Lucian's shoulder. Lucian caught his hand his fingers forming a vice around Antony's wrist. With a sharp jerk Lucian pulled Antony's arm behind his back and with a shove in the small of it began driving Antony back towards the woods. Antony roared and dug his heels into the ground building up the pressure as Lucian continued to try to force him to move. Antony shoulders down bringing his father down as well as he continued to try to hold him in that moment Antony his father's body to back flip over him. Lucian felt Antony's body move over him in the reckless move, his arm still ensnared his hand. Lucian knew Antony would probably dislocate his shoulder in the action he was taking if he still was holding his arm. Lucian let go.

Viktor saw this from his place afar and his eyes widened slightly. "He's holding back," he said softly.

Antony landed so that he was facing Lucian and Lucian was facing him. Almost the moment his body was still Antony brought his arm back and punched Lucian with an open palm and curled fingers squarely in the chest. Lucian let out a huff stunned by the blow and reeled backwards his careful feet now careless. Antony, seeing the opportunity, used his legs to sideswipe Lucian's feet. Lucian the great lycan spun in the air and landed on his stomach, his hands on either side of his head, his face in the dirt.

Antony looked down at the stately mass that lay still at his feet breathing heavily, his shoulders moving up and down from the effort. Without another word Antony turned and left his father and began to walk back to the fortress where his grandfather and the coven was waiting. But the grandfather saw this and let out a long hiss thorough his teeth. "Oh, you fool."

One eye opened, a wide eyed bloodshot human eye, and it stared for a moment at the back of his son. And then in a rush it clouded over in a haze of opaque blue, the animal beating away the human violently in response to his challenger besting him, the alpha lycan, the deepest most primal part of Lucian, that which ruled his pack refused to secede from power, also the father in him refused to lose his son, or lose to him.

Lucian shot up off the ground like it had given him a violent electric shock, phasing on the fly and running at a breakneck speed the few feet that separated Antony and Lucian. The lycan bit down, hard, on the human shoulder of his son, who was so taken aback by the sudden vicious attack he forgot to phase. Antony snapped his head back as Lucian tore into the muscles of his shoulder, making an instinctive sound that sounded like the yelping of a dog. Lucian violently wrenched him around dragging Antony by the shoulder over the ground him. Lucian let his shoulder out of his jaw and Antony spun away from him. When Antony front spun to face Lucian's front Lucian reared up on his powerful hind legs and with his clawed hand cut across Antony's chest forcing him to the ground with a grunt, leaving five deep gashed decorating his son's chest.

Lucian returned to all fours and prowled over to Antony who was lying on his back either incapable of moving or afraid to. The massive lycan climbed on his son a front foot holding down the shoulder that did not bear the marks of his teeth and a back foot pinning his thigh. Antony winced at the weight that was crushing his leg, bruising it. In his eyes Lucian saw his son looking up at him in awe and the animal that lingered behind them in submission to his superior. Lucian turned to his human form and with a well placed blow to the side of his head, he knocked Antony unconscious.

Viktor bowed his head and looked at the stone beneath his hands.

Lucian gingerly picked up Antony's limp from and laid him over his shoulders. He stood and turned for a moment to look back at the fortress that Antony had wanted to call his home. Viktor as if sensing his gaze raised his head and looked down at him. They held the other's eyes for a moment before Lucian adjusted Antony slightly and walked away, disappearing back into the forest. Viktor watched Lucian's receding back and for a while he stared at where he had last seen him, Kraven standing by his side. He inhaled his body relaxing slightly.

"Captain."

Kraven's brow crinkled before he turned to look at Viktor. When the Elder had harnessed his attention he continued, still looking out to where he had last seen his enemy and his son. "Arrange a scouting party," he said lightly, "there are wolves in the forest."

Kraven absorbed the double meaning of this command before bowing low to his master. "Yes, my lord."

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hey guys sorry the update took so long but senior year is wrapping up so i got a lot of stuff to do before i graduate


	10. Recalled

Chapter Ten: Recalled

The pale fingers of dawn crept over the mountains, through the dense forests and down into the alley where Lucian's fortress lay turning from the intimidating shade's of nighttime's cloak to the grays and grit of daylight. Sonja and Illa waited on the steps on their husband and father's fortress, slightly away from the day, still dark and beautiful in the light of the terrible dawn. Neither said a word, they didn't even look at each other for their eyes continued to scan the ever lightening horizon as they had for the past hours since Lucian had left in pursuit of his son. Illa remained impassive believing she would be able to sense if her brother was in some sort of distress so she cleared her mind as if to find him with her eyes still roaming back and forth betwixt the trees. Sonja however was not. She was paler than her usual pallor even the moon failing to replicate the odd illuminating of her porcelain skin. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, yet she scarcely seemed to breathe through her mouth and nose. She just silently hyperventilated beside her daughter as she waited for her husband son to return to her, in whatsoever way they may.

Suddenly Sonja's eyes stopped so violently that even Illa who wasn't even watching her followed to what snared Sonja's vision. A shadow blackened the rising sun. A shadow that grew bigger and more defined as it descended the hill. Both Sonja and Illa gasped as the light revealed their lover and brother. Lucian walked in a slow yet steady pace while he went down to the valley and into his house where his wife waited as well as the sister of the man who was in his arms. Antony was still unconscious as he carried him much like when he was an infant, a bruise adorning his forehead and many other cuts and abrasions. Antony's shirt was tightly wrapped around his chest to cover the healing wounds of Lucian's swipe across his chest.

Lucian's face was stony and steely as he heavily ascended the stairs amid the murmuring ever-growing crowd of lycan men. Sonja whimpered and reached for her seemingly lifeless son but Lucian did not relinquish him. Lucian with Antony in tow walked past both Sonja and Illa and into the confines of the castle. Sonja and Illa glanced at each other before following their husband and brother leaving the others outside. In the silence of the great hall Lucian's footsteps rang in deep bell like tones as he walked. Sonja and Illa began to walk in front of him of him attempting to predict his mute movements. Lucian exhaled a breath and shifted his arms strained and weary from the fight as well as carrying his son. He stopped walking and looked at Sonja. Sonja read his eyes and got down on the ground while Lucian knelt and placed Antony on the stone, Sonja cradling his head in her lap, Illa hovering around them. Lucian stood and almost instantly Illa took his place beside her brother, busying with his shirt. Sonja stroked his face and Antony groaned softly against her touch.

"What happened?" asked Sonja as Lucian continued to silently stare down at the trio. Lucian didn't get a chance to answer even if he was going to for a gasp drew both parents' attention to their daughter's face at what was revealed to her from beneath Antony's shirt. Only Illa and Sonja stared stunned at Antony's words, Lucian did not need to look at the ugly carvings on Antony's chest that had not yet healed for they were dug so deep in his rage and desperation. Sonja and Illa stared up at him with shock and sorrow pooled in their eyes. Lucian could not stand that look so without a word he left them.

Sonja looked urgently after her husband but she was loath to leave her son in this state. Illa saw the conflict on her face and reached out her hand and touched her mother's. "You go, I'll stay." Illa said softly. Sonja looked at Illa and nodded once and rose to follow Lucian.

Sonja followed the sound of Lucian's footsteps retreating quickly towards their bedchamber. She only paused once when she heard the wooden door violently shut in front of her ringing down the vestibules. Sonja laid her hand on the door that separated them and softly pushed it open. She saw him leaning against the covered window staring out to the tented sunlight. The amber of the pane shone like natural sunlight giving him a glow she had rarely seen a glow he would often have on his face is he weren't bound to a vampire bride and a brace of hybrid children, the glow of daylight. For a moment Sonja felt her heart flutter as it expanded to accommodate even more of her love for him. Like a nighttime breeze Sonja floated over to her husband whose eyes were still far away in his thoughts, his fingers curled into a fist and tucked under his rugged chin. Sonja reached out and stroked his cheek as if to draw him back to her but Lucian pulled away shrinking ore into his body. Sonja grabbed more fiercely onto his shoulder and attempted to turn him towards her. "Lucian," said Sonja, "what happened, why is Antony injured so?"

Lucian flinched at the words pertaining to his son's wounds and he turned a little bit more away from Sonja speaking more to the window then his wife, his mind lost to the memories that happened miles away. "We fought," Lucian said bluntly. "Antony was with Viktor of his own free will, nor would he leave of his own free will so I…I took him when he challenged me." Lucian paused and Sonja felt a tremor pass though his body. "I hurt him." Lucian suddenly turned and enveloped Sonja in a firm embrace. Sonja clung to him sensing his now chinked armor sliding from his shoulders, something he did only for her when they met in their secret sanctum above Viktor's world. Sonja sense his lycan warrior-self falling by the wayside in weariness leaving the much more fragile form of a man, a man with fears, sorrows, and regrets. Lucian numbly ran his fingers over Sonja and her comforting presence burying his face into the top of her head. He spoke with a soft voice, muffled by her raven hair. "What kind of father beats his child?"

Sonja wrapped her arms around Lucian's neck the crooks of her elbows resting over his neck bones. "A father that loves his son, fiercely, a father that would do anything to protect him, even things he doesn't know he needs protecting from. You know he cannot yet recall all the things they are meant to know."

Lucian let out a shaking sigh his wet eyes staring at the door that separated their escape and their reality. "I can't stand this anymore, this amnesia. It must come to an end; it has to."

"I know," Sonja whispered wishing along with her husband that they did not have to dance around their children's old life while waiting for them to recollect, and always with the ever lingering question of when, or if.

After a long silence Lucian sighed again, a longer more lingering breath. "Sonja," he breathily whispered cupping her cheek with his hand, "my love," he stroked the side of her face in a long languid strokes. "I fear we may have lost our first children forever." It was true in a way in Lucian's mind, the children he had first known, as his children were far different then the ones he had raised. Illa was isolated and Antony was discontent. The twins had also lost their ethereal other worldliness that was is their posture their way of speech even their strange eyes that once attracted and unnerved him so, traits tied to beings that straddled two worlds were lost to them. Sonja ran all of that through her mind and her face delved deeper into Lucian's chest. Sonja did not say anything for she did not have anything to sat to assuage his fears.

Antony slowly came to seeing only shadows then light then shapes figures and faces, Illa's face in particular for it hovered over his own. Antony groaned and raised his hand to his knotted forehead his fingers feeling the tender bruising. Antony pressed his palms into the floor and attempted to rise, a growing pain tearing at his chest. He winced, his face twisting as he did so. Antony closed his eyes and exhaled a sharp breath before he felt a small smooth hand gently restrain him. "Try no to move," Illa whispered easing him to the ground.

The wounds were deep and Antony watched them as they healed willing them to do so as Illa ran her fingers lightly over his chest while his skin restored itself. Eventually the deep cuts healed to scars, then whitened and faded until they disappeared. Antony inhaled a deep breath stretching his skin until he was satisfied. Antony looked up at Illa who still ran her hand over his chest tracing and retracing where his wounds would have been. He raised a calloused hand and covered Illa's stilling its movement. He looked up at Illa and held her gaze. He caressed her knuckles. Illa revealed a soft smile and bent over her brother to kiss his forehead.

Illa kept her chin pressed to his forehead, she looked down at Antony and found him looking up at her. "What was he like?" she asked.

Antony paused not really sure how to describe him. He wanted to say, he wanted to believe, that Viktor was their escape boat, but doubt stalled his tongue, doubt manifested in his father's words; that he did not remember all that he needed to know. He rose to a sitting position his arms braced on either side of him his shirt falling in rags around him. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Illa repeated arching an eyebrow.

Antony shook his head almost to himself; he couldn't explain it. "I don't know if I know all that I'm supposed to." His mind turned back a few hours ago to the snarling face that ran him to the ground the eyes the claws the teeth the most welcome oblivion of unconsciousness. Antony's face grew stoic and emotionless and his tongue fell silent, his large hand stroked the skin where his wounds were once carved. His eyes flashed, he had ruined everything, but Antony was not sure if the he that was referred to was Lucian, Viktor, or himself.

Illa caught the gleam that lit up his dark eyes and read his face in the way on a sister could. She knelt down towards him drawing his attention with a quick flick of his guarded eyes. "Are you angry with him?" Again that nondescript male that was to be at fault for all their problems but again Antony could not give him a name, whether it was Viktor who lied to him keeping him from a very vital secret or Lucian who barred he and his sister from a life of peace because of his personal vendetta. So Antony did not respond to the question, but kept stroking the shadows of his scars. One thing he was defiantly sure of was the only thing that was injured was his pride. Illa waited a beat for her brother to respond before once again reading him better than anyone could. Illa rose and stood above him and extended a hand down to him. He looked up at it. "Come," Illa said to him, "spar with me."

Antony started with a question in his eyes. "Spar?" he repeated, never the less taking her hand and used it to rise from the ground, "Illa, really, why would I?"

"You need an ego boost," said Illa simply but teasingly, taking a step away from him into the center of the room.

Antony was taken aback slightly. He never remembered his sister not being withdrawn and quiet, especially since he and his father have been contesting their strength of wills. He walked around her as he continued to speak. "Why would I not just go to one of the others, sister?"

"I don't know," Illa said, "I just have a feeling that it is me you need."

Antony tried to create a rebuttal but none presented themselves so he shrugged his shoulders and looked at his sister with an accommodating smile and fell into a prepped stance. Antony was pleased that Illa was acting differently, yet it was a difference he wasn't expecting. Illa carried an attitude of polite aloofness as if she was doing a waltz with her words much in the same way that he suddenly discovered that she walked, and that he mirrored in both ways.

Lucian and Sonja entered the room a few minutes after they began, nether one acknowledged their entrance but both noticed them on the peripheries of their senses as they sparred their eyes locked on their sibling's faces and their fluidly moving limbs. Both parents stopped and stared at their two children and Sonja gasped gripping onto Lucian's forearm her eyes wide as Antony made an aggressive movement against Illa and the latter gracefully spun out from underneath him. "He's fighting her?" whispered Sonja horrified stepping forward.

"No," answered Lucian holding her back gently by the shoulder. "Not really." Lucian remembered in another life when he had seen this before, when he watched from the shadows as two mysterious ethereal beings sparred in the moonlight simultaneously against and with each other ever circling each other in a war like waltz like dancers in the night. Lucian sat down and watched them much differently than when he did all those years ago, with wonder instead of incredulously. Sonja sat down next to her husband since his hand was still on her shoulder. She looked between her children and Lucian before she caught the look in his eyes. It seemed unbelievably happy. She followed his line of sight and was pleased to see that it was her children which was giving him such content. A half smile painted itself across her face and she nestled her head into the crook of his broad shoulder and neck.

"What are you thinking?" she asked quietly.

Lucian wrapped a strong securing arm around Sonja's body resting his cheek on the top of her head. "I'm not thinking," he responded rubbing her upper arm. "I'm remembering."

That word rand in the ears of the twins like a bell tone paralyzing them as a tidal wave came over them. Faces, forms, conversations, conflicts, names, and actions. It was not as if they saw themselves and were not aware of the meaning of these visions. With every flash of epiphany they knew.

Lucian and Sonja stiffened when Illa and Antony stilled their eyes wide their pupils rapidly moving inside their sockets, their faces molded into a look of shock. When they moved their motions were slow and deliberate, other worldly almost their faces still carried the look of shock but their eyes carried the weight of their knowing. A look they had not borne in many years and at the same time, not at all. They looked at each other for a moment almost becoming statues. Then simultaneously their eyes traveled to Lucian and Sonja, their faces soon following suit. To the parents the children looked like they had recalled something very important.

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hey guys bet you all started to think i had dropped off the planet! Well i'm back now graduated from high school and ready to give you all a whole truck load of new material for your reading pleasure this summer season. Oh did you all notice my tie in two my The Children oneshot Dancers? Hope you enjoy reading!


	11. Taken

Chapter Eleven: Taken

Illa went through the woods dense underbrush at a brisk jog, her body somewhat readapting to the way her body moved in her previous life, barely stirring her surroundings as she passed through it. Her eyes, more impassive, more clairvoyant, looked into the forgotten years of her life. She remembered the trackless time she and her brother spent in the Hierarchy's company. She remembered the task that she and her brother were charged with. Her face flickered with feeling when she remembered the plight of her parents, and the terror of her grandfather. For her entire life she was curious about Viktor, and the way her parents were so tight lipped about him and their life within his control. They had no way to explain how their mother survived Viktor's wrath one he discovered his daughter and Lucian's tryst, now way to tell there children how exactly they were so sure that Viktor was set on the deaths of his grandchildren. But most of all, Illa remembered Tanis and his treachery.

Illa's pace slowed until she stopped in front of the monastery where the vampire's bodiless spirit dwelled. There she lingered and wondered as she had on her journey here why she had returned to confront him. She sighed and forced her facial muscles to relax and her body to readapt to the graceful almost floating hair that she had one unconsciously had. She walked into the monastery and in a few minutes she descended into the archives stashed in its cellars. She closed her eyes, searching the room with her other senses, but she could not find even and invisible presence in the room.

"Tanis," she called with no emotion in her voice at all, her voice echoing around the rooms."

"_Illa," _Tanis' voice was closer than she anticipated. He was almost on top of her. _"You have returned."_

Illa turned around in the direction of where the voice was, an unseen face undoubtedly examining her own.

Tanis' voice was stiff and low. _"You have remembered."_

Illa felt his presence, now revealed, come closer to her. It reached out and touched her face. Illa backed away a few inches. Tanis' presence stayed where it was. _"And now you are afraid of me."_

Illa's tone was guarded, but carried nothing else. "You allied yourself with Urios. That is frightening."

"_Urios was frightening." _Tanis' voice was guarded as well. It was like playing verbal chess: polite, refined, but always tense.

"Why did you do it?" Illa asked.

"_Because I am a coward, my dear." _Tanis' voice suddenly became dripping with criticism pushed on himself. _"I always have been, for the many many years of my life." _He paused and Illa felt his presence move away from her as if he were pacing. _"Urios came to me shortly after you and your brother arrived. He said he came from the place that you did, and I was to be his eyes and ears while you were on this plane because I am close to Viktor, but Viktor would never notice my doings." _Tanis paused again but did not move towards the woman in his company. _"I feared Urios more than I feared Viktor…and I have paid for it."_

Tanis moved forward again, slower this time, and Illa could still sense his gaze upon her, instinctively stiffening her spine.

"_Yet still you distrust me," _said Tanis quietly, yet still moving forward.

"You betrayed my parents to my grandfather." It was neither a question nor an accusation.

Illa could almost picture him nodding with his words. _"I did. And as I have said, I have paid for my crimes against your family. It is also in my nature to hold a blood grudge against lycans, even at the expense of one of my own kind."_

Illa's temper flared slightly. "How could you begrudge my father anything, he has done nothing to you. He is a good man,"

"_Lucian is a great man, far greater than I or even Viktor, who rules his people by fear, whereas your father leads with hope and equality. He is brave, he is loyal, and he fiercely his kin. I like him no less, but I like him no more either."_

Tanis paused, and Illa didn't say anything. _"Now I have a question for you," _said Tanis suddenly.

Illa started at the fact that now she was the questioned and not the interviewer, but Tanis ignored her nervous reaction and continued.

"_Why are you here now? You knew all I had done before you began your journey here. Why not leave me here, never to return, as I originally anticipated?"_

Illa didn't say anything for a long while because she had no answer. "I don't know," she said softly.

When Tanis spoke he was very close to her again. _"I think you know, and I know." _His voice was soft and gentle. _"These are different lives we lead, and we are different people from those of years ago."_

Illa felt his presence reach out and touch her face. This time she allowed it to remain there. She felt water in her eyes.

"_Why do you weep," _asked Tanis softly.

"In want of seeing your face." Illa did remember his face, but it was cold, centered around cruel and calculating eyes. She wanted to know his face now with gentler kinder eyes, like Jelicho's, whose eyes were always warm when he looked upon her.

Before anything else could be said or done between the two of them something did happen. Illa heard loud banging and thundering footsteps of people entering the rooms above them and quickly descending into the cellars. She sniffed, and the growled low in her throat.

The door opened violently and a group of Death Dealers entered the room lead by a dark haired vampire whom Illa did not recognize. She crouched down in a threatening position when they saw her. Her eyes and skin darkened and he growled more audibly, completely forgetting Tanis' presence in the room.

The dark haired vampire chuckled, looked over his shoulder and nodded at someone that she could not see. Illa's growling stopped suddenly when the crowd parted and Viktor walked forward with a pleased look on his face. "Well done Kraven," he said softly and the dark haired vampire nodded his head.

Illa's eyes darted up towards the space between Viktor's head and the top of the door and she jumped at it to escape. But before Illa could sail over her grandfather, Viktor reached up and caught Illa by the face. His fingers tightened to stop her momentum, bruising her forehead and her cheekbones. Viktor flung her to the ground and she rolled over once before stopping on her hands and knees.

Illa prepared to jump again, but the company of Death Dealers that were with Viktor restrained her this time. She phased immediately into her bruised colored, dark eyed hybrid form and began to slowly drag the vampires that clung to her with her strength and sheer force of will. Her jaws snapped at Viktor's face, which was getting closer and closer to her.

Suddenly she felt a searing pain as Kraven, who had been watching all the while, took out his sword and stabbed Illa in the thigh just above the knee. Her jaw dropped and her long howl's pitch got higher as she slowly turned back from her hybrid form into her human form. When her transformation was complete she looked down, gasping, and saw the end of Kraven's blade, stained crimson, sticking out through the other side of her leg.

Illa winced when Kraven twisted his wrist, turned his sword, and then pulled it out leaving a cross shaped injury in her leg. Illa groaned, and she felt a chill as Viktor's fingers slid under chin. Viktor's fingers were cool and gentle for a moment, softly touching her face as if her were examining her. Then his fingers tightened like a vice, forcing her eyes to look back at him.

"Struggle," he said softly but pleasantly, "and I will have him take it all the way off."

Viktor's hands became gentle again and slowly slid off her chin. The moment he released her, two Death Dealers slid their hands underneath her shoulders and half carried her out of the room, for her wound, even with her quick regeneration had not completely healed.

Before they pulled her out of the room, Ill looked over her shoulder in vain hope to see someone that could not be seen, before she felt a presence swiftly pass past her.

Lucian was tense as he felt with his senses the moon lazily glide across the sky. A good deal of time had passed since Illa had abruptly left the fortress, streaming through the darkened trees in her hybrid form, shortly after she and Antony had rediscovered their pasts. He slowly moved towards the window on the side of the central chamber and stared out at the celestial light. When he came into its light he left the lycan within him shift, stretch his bones, gathering strength, but Lucian suppressed it skillfully.

The lycan felt a set of smooth, slender fingers slide onto his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and Sonja stared at him. She gave him a soft smile and turned him around by the hand that was on his shoulder.

"What troubles you?" she asked.

Lucian reached up and played with a strand of Sonja's raven hair, idly rolling it and unrolling it within his fingers.

"I don't know," he said, "I have this feeling." Sonja silently and patiently pressed him until he continued. "Illa seemed so unsettled before she left."

Sonja nodded, not speaking. Before she could say anything however the double doors of the room opened and Antony and Jelicho entered. They were both sweaty and dirty; Lucian and Sonja saw the deep and rapid movement of their chests as they approached.

"Have you seen your sister?" Lucian asked, addressing Antony.

Antony shook his head. "No," he said, steadying his speech, "and we looked everywhere."

"_I know where Illa went. I also know where she is going." _

The disembodied voice, whose presence in the cavernous hall seemed to echo all around it, startled everyone. Antony's skin darkened, Jelicho's eyes clouded over and his form began to shift, and Lucian's claws began to extend from his fingers. Only Sonja, whose fangs were dropped, somewhat maintained her composure. "Tanis?"

This disembodied voice that was Tanis answered. _"Lady Sonja."_

Sonja stepped forward a few feet, despite Lucian's efforts to keep her close to him. "You survived?"

"_In a way, yes." _Tanis paused. _"I have news for you in regards to your daughter."_

"Where is she," asked Lucian. His voice was low and even.

"_Taken," _said Tanis, _"by Viktor." _The room got suddenly very quiet and very tense. Tanis continued in the unnatural silence. _"I know where in his fortress that Viktor is keeping her. I followed them there, and then I found your son and his companion and followed them here to you, Lucian." _Lucian looked up to where he believed the voice of Tanis to be originating. _"I will lead you to her, if you would like." _Lucian said nothing but nodded. _"Good," _said Tanis airily and pleasantly, _"Then I suggest we hurry, day is coming and we may breach the fortress while the vampires sleep." _They all felt Tanis' presence leave the room as he waited unseen outside.

Lucian suddenly became very businesslike. He turned to Antony and Jelicho. "Tanis is right. Come we must hurry and leave now if we are to have the advantage." Antony and Jelicho flanked Lucian as they left the darkness of the fortress and went into the courtyard. As Lucian descended the steps, Sonja caught up with him.

"I want to come with you," she said.

"No," Lucian replied in a tone that held no argument. "The day comes soon and you will be in danger. Tanis is right, if we enter in the day we may be able to smuggle Illa out easily and safely."

"You know my father better than that."

Lucian nodded. "I know," he said quietly. Lucian reached out and touched the pendant that was draped around his wife's neck, the act bringing them close together.

Sonja drew her husband's attention. "Be safe, please."

Lucian cupped her face in his hands. "I love you too." He kissed her hard, and her kissed her fiercely, before slowly pulling away, looking deep into her eyes. Lucian turned away.

"_Are you ready?" _asked Tanis from somewhere near him.

Lucian nodded. "Let's go!" he said loudly, shifted, and launched down the stairs in his lycan form. Sonja watched silently as the three immortals accompanied by their invisible comrade, raced into the gathering mists of morning.


	12. Rescuer

Chapter Twelve: Rescuer

I was once on one side of a war, one hundred years in the making, which two children diffused. Now I am leading my enemy into the heart of my own home, while my kin sleep in the sunlight, to save one child.

We are small, this rescue party, a father, a brother, and two lovers, all for one woman, who lies in the cell her father one stood in, that her grandfather threw them both in.

There will be blood for this. The lycan and his and mine's old master have strung the strings of tension too tight between them. They will break, and those of us pupated between them will fall as they clash their heads together. Which of us will survive the drop.

I am traitor, I am a rescuer, it depends on what side that you see my face, if I had face to see, if I had a face to remember. How will unborn remember me?


	13. Feel

Chapter Thirteen: Feel

The days were short in that time of the year, and it took most of the day for Lucian, Antony, Jelicho, and the unseen Tanis to reach Viktor's fortress. Only Jelicho, who had been created outside the vampires' enslavement, had not dwelled within its walls. The remaining three had very strong memories of the time that they had lived there. Lucian held the longest, the deepest, and the most vehement. He had built those walls, which encircled the castle within, he and those he had been forced to create during the full moon when he lacked the control to fight the power of the moon, his blood brothers. He remembered those cells he and the other lycans were put in during the day. Lucian had lived many years under Viktor, more years than he had lived not under Viktor, and in those years he rarely saw a full day's worth of sunlight. Lucian imagined that those cells had rusted to the point of ruin, and were filthy from neglect. Tanis had informed him on the way there that Illa had been thrown inside not just a lycan cell, but Lucian's old cell. Lucian knew that he was being bated, that his daughter being in that particular cell was meant to goad him into rash actions. He knew all of this, but it still angered him in the way that Viktor wanted all the same.

Antony felt somewhat of the same way. His stay, however brief it was in both the life that he was born into and the life that he remembered, left him unsettled almost as much as his father was. During his first life, Viktor had tried to kill him before he and his sister were even born at the expense of his own daughter. He had almost started a war with his own father, Lucian, which would have been so long and so bloody that the guardians of the gate to the realm of the dead sent both he and Illa to intervene on their behalf. In his second life Viktor, for many weeks took advantage of one man trying to mend the ties of his family and bring them together. He used Antony's' lack of memory for his own uses and allowed him to train his Death Dealers, rise in their ranks to one of their supreme commanders. He had tired to steal Antony away from his father, without Antony even knowing it. Both Antony and his father were bound and determined to never be under Viktor's thumb again.

Tanis had a more muddied set of conflicting recollections. He remembered the constant presence of Viktor's power, his rage. He remembered the corruption of Viktor's rule that was in effort to become the undisputed leader of the vampire elders. He forced Tanis to rewrite the histories of their species, saying that he was the living heir of Alexander Corvinus, and not Marcus. He enslaved a species, which eventually brought about a break in his power. Tanis thought, in retrospect, that there is only so many times a dog will be hit before he bites the hand of his master. But Tanis had other memories that were less dark, less grizzly. Tanis remembered the elegance of his previous life, and the Dionysian way that he and the others within the coven lived it. Whether Viktor gained his power and control by honorable means or not, it was never questioned that while Viktor ruled the coven grew and flourished. They drank their humans, they made love with their women, and they siphoned away an inexhaustible cash flow and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them, except for the lycans. A part of him knew that the lycans had been wronged, but could he commit treason against his own species when he had no qualm with it.

All their thoughts and memories broke however, when Lucian moved to the point of the group and stared at the imposing building through the dense underbrush with a calculating expression. Both his son, and his invisible guide approached him. "It is too late in the day, Lucian," said Tanis, "Viktor is expecting you."

"I will not wait until morning," Lucian's tone was not one to be reasoned with.

"It would not matter anyways," said Antony, "day or night."

Lucian turned his head, and though no one could see it Tanis turned his head too and looked at the young hybrid. "What do you mean?" asked Lucian.

"There is a small sect of Death Dealers who guard the fortress by day. Viktor calls them Day Watchers. I have seen them."

Lucian seemed somewhat stunned at this news, stunned and surprised. "How may are there," he asked.

"Twenty." replied Antony, "maybe more since Viktor knows we are coming."

Lucian frowned slightly before turning his head back to the fortress, trying to add this piece of information into his plan of how to breach the stone wall the encircled the castle.

"There must be a way inside," Jelicho's voice was tense and anxious, not wanting Illa to be in enemy custody any longer than she had to be.

"There is a way," said Tanis, "a secret way, hidden at the base of the mountain. It is farther away from our goal but there is more of a chance that no one will notice you."

"Why did I never know of this?" asked Lucian.

"Why would Viktor tell the secret of his castle to a lycan," responded Tanis smugly, "even his favorite pet."

"Then why do you know," asked Antony, who also had no knowledge of this passage.

"I am the keeper of Viktor's secrets," answered Tanis, adding silently to himself that this was the least of them.

Lucian was quiet for a moment his eyes glancing back at the fortress that now might have a weakness. He was still staring at it when he spoke. "Take us there."

Tanis, though no one could see him, nodded. "Follow my voice," he whispered and then slowly began to lead them.

It was a crawling pace, sneaking around the tree line as the sun stretched out their shadows. Tanis barely moved to insure that the rest could follow him. He whispered to them, indicating where he was and where they should go. He whispered, for he did not want his voice to reveal those he led to the Day Watchers. Antony and Jelicho listened to Tanis' soft voice. Lucian listened as well, but his head was completely turned to the wall, seeking out any signs of movement while the younger two guided him along.

Eventually they reached the roots of the mountain the fortress was carved from and began moving along the base of the wall as the climbed. Tanis passed easily through the dense shrubbery while the others gingerly picked though it, burning up even more of their precious time. "Hurry, Lucian. Hurry," said Tanis a little louder that he should have to convey his urgency. His eyes were locked on the sun, which was slipping below the crest of the mountain casting the valley in shadows.

Lucian saw it too and became less cautious. "How much farther is it?" trying to be both quick and quiet in the unknown terrain.

"Not much farther," responded Tanis quickening his pace to match the lycan's. If Lucian could have seen it, Tanis would have pointed, "just there."

Tanis guided Lucian, Antony, and Jelicho to a place in the wall that was hugging the rough stone of the mountain. He lined himself up with the secret entrance, which was a slab the size of what his body used to be. He spoke clearly and sharply so the men could hone in on his location. "It is here. But, it is meant to be opened from the inside. It's on a hinge, so if you pull it, it should move." After a moment of lining up the lycan with the exact location of the door, Lucian pushed his fingers into the crevice between the blocks and pulled. The door didn't budge and he continued to pull, sweat beading upon his brow. Lucian slid his hands upwards and Antony moved up beside him and pulled on the door with his father. Even with Antony's additional and significant strength, it took both Lucian and Antony pulling and Jelicho pushing the other end of the door for it to finally give. They squeezed though the tiny opening they had made and were immersed in total darkness.

They walked one behind the other through the long straight tunnel. "When the tunnel ends," commented Tanis as he walked, 'we will be in the corridors were the coven sleeps, near Viktor's apartments," he paused, "I trust you will be able to take it from there, Lucian?"

Lucian nodded, forming a mental map in his head of where they were and where they needed to be. He was the only lycan privileged enough to be anywhere near Viktor's personal chambers. In addition, he had also sneaked his way past Viktor's quarters and into Sonja's on several occasions. The group reached the end of the passageway. The door was much easier to open, and with one firm push they were inside the castle.

It was abnormally quiet within the halls, a forced quiet. Tanis was so silent that for all intents and purposes, he wasn't there at all. Tanis cautiously fanned out in front of the trio of lycans, skirting around the corners to see if there was anyone there while the others had their ears tuned to any allusion of sound. They made there way smoothly though the dark and cavernous halls easily avoiding the sparsely placed Day Watchers with Tanis scouting ahead, Lucian leading the visible party, and Antony and Jelicho flanking him on either side.

Suddenly, a door on Antony's side of the corridor swung open, and a slender, dark haired woman passed though it, for a moment, completely unaware of the lycans' presence. When she did discover them, no one moved. The woman gasped, and took one hurried step back, but paused, seeing Antony. Jelicho was trapped between his fight or flight instincts. Lucian was stunned, staring at a woman with Sonja's face with short hair that couldn't possibly be his wife. Only Antony made a move towards Selene. He took several quick steps towards Selene when she began backing away from him. Before she could get away, Antony wrapped one hand around Selene's midsection and his other hand went over her mouth. Selene yelped into his hand, but Antony shushed her, holding her gently but firmly as she struggled. "No one will hurt you, Selene," he said quietly to her.

Antony moved Selene forward, a precautionary hand over her mouth. Selene had stopped struggling, but she was still tense. "Who is this," asked Lucian.

"This is Selene," answered Antony somewhat impassively, "She is Viktor's new favorite." Antony looked at his father, whose eyes burned as he stared at the woman pressed against Antony's chest. He turned sharply around and began to move briskly down the hall. Antony empathized with him. His eyes still somewhat burned at the sight of Selene, but he had recovered beforehand from the shock of Viktor selecting someone so much like Sonja to join his coven, and then that person becoming Viktor's favorite, like a child to him.

Antony bent down slightly and whispered in Selene's ear. "Is there still a young woman kept in the lycan cells. A woman with my father's features."

When Antony dropped his hand from her mouth Selene nodded. "Yes," she said, "she is your sister?"

Antony nodded.

Selene indicated to Lucian's back. "And, he is your father?"

Antony nodded again. Selene shivered slightly. "My parents were killed by lycans, but I've never seen one this close before."

Before Antony could speak again, Lucian interrupted him. "Were you born around here?" he asked.

Selene looked at Lucian, who had turned to look over his shoulder as he walked. "Excuse me?" she said.

"You, your family," said Lucian, "did they live in this area?"

"Yes," Selene responded, "fairly close."

"Then lycans didn't kill your family, said Lucian, facing forward again. "All the werewolves and lycans in this region obey me. We do not kill humans, not even accidentally." Lucian went to great length to protect humans from his pack. One less reason for humans to seek out vampires for their protection and turn against them.

Jelicho felt the sun slip beneath the horizon and he tensed. "We have to hurry, I feel the day leaving us."

Lucian was tense as well, but less than Jelicho. "There is no need right now," he said quietly, "we are here." Lucian opened the door and Tanis' presence descended into the dungeon searching for Death Dealers. Lucian, Antony, Jelicho, and Selene were left at the entrance, watching the steep staircase spiral downward into the earth until it was swallowed by darkness.

"Illa is down there?" asked Jelicho.

Both Antony and Lucian nodded without speaking, their faces stone. Jelicho growled softly, and deep into his chest. Selene pressed herself into Antony's chest, pushing herself away from Jelicho. Antony noticed this and subtly shifted, creating a slight barrier between Jelicho and Selene with his body.

Tanis returned quickly. "There is no one," he said to Lucian, "but she is there."

The lycan leader along with his followers descended into the dungeons. Everyone was tense for they could feel the night coming upon them and the vampires would be stirring soon. The only sound coming from the group was the sound of their footfalls echoing down the stairs with them. Soon blocks of cells began to rise above them as they went deeper and deeper. Lucian paid them no mind. He was guiding them not with Tanis' directions, but by his own memories of the dark and terrible place. The group reached the bottom of the dungeon and quickly began making their way through the labyrinth of cells built into the floor.

As Tanis had said, they found Illa in Lucian's old cell, next to the one she had briefly occupied in her previous life. Her body was pressed to the bars, staring wide-eyed out at them, already alerted to their presence. "Father," she whispered when she saw them, "Antony."

Lucian rushed over to his child and attempted to reach for her through the bars. However, when he was inches from the barrier between Illa and himself, he smelled the silver in which her prison was comprised of. Lucian backed away and, on closer inspection, noticed that several of the cells that had not completely rusted out had sliver bars placed in them.

"Viktor has been renovating," Lucian noted to his daughter.

Illa nodded. "I noticed," she said, "and they have been watching me so closely that I have not been able to phase and break them."

"How long have your guards not been here?" asked Antony who was still holding Selene in both a restraining and protective fashion.

Illa looked over her father's shoulder at her twin. "About an hour and a half."

Antony looked at Lucian who looked back at him. "They know we are here."

Lucian nodded his head hurriedly. "All the more reason for us to be quick and quiet."

During the course of this conversation, Jelicho had moved away from the group. He had found a long and thick bolt in a cell that was rusted beyond use. Jelicho removed it and brought it over to Illa's cell where he rammed it into the door and shook it about inside the lock.

Everyone outside the cell turned their attention to Jelicho's action. As Illa watched from within, Tanis' invisible form slipped through the bars. Illa's body, which was attuned to Tanis' presence, felt the subtle changes in her surroundings at his appearance. "Andreas," she said quietly so that the others wouldn't hear her.

"Illa," he said softly into her ear.

"You brought them here?" she said.

"Yes," Andreas responded. Andreas felt the warmth radiating off of her body.

"I knew you would," she said, "you brave man. I knew you would come for me."

Andreas didn't speak for a moment, then spoke quieter than his previous whisper. "Always."

Jelicho, after thoroughly destroying the inner workings of the lock, pulled the door open, releasing Illa.

Lucian took a few steps forward as Illa moved swiftly from her prison. The two embraced and Lucian put one hand on either side of Illa's face, looking her over. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," answered Illa. Suddenly, Illa turned her head up sharply towards the distant ceiling and stared at it as though she could see through it. "The day has gone," she said blankly.

Lucian felt the familiar tug of the moon and shivered slightly. He looked about the room and saw that everyone had had a similar reaction to the coming of night and looked at him with tense and wary eyes. Lucian took Illa by the shoulders and began steering her towards the stairs. "Come, we must hurry before anyone notices us."

The group raced up the staircase, determined not to be seen by the Death Dealers, but they did not get far. When Lucian with Illa, Antony with Selene, Jelicho and Andreas reached the summit of the stairs, a Death Dealer was standing in front of the door. The vampire turned swiftly and fell into a crouch, his gleaming fangs dropping. The two lycans and the two hybrids did the same. But, instead of attacking, the vampire opened his mouth and shouted. "They're here! The lycans! Near the dungeon!"

In an instant Lucian's eyes clouded over. His mouth morphed somewhat to accommodate his augmented canine teeth. Lucian roared so loudly it did more to alert the castle than the original call from the vampire. Lucian lunged forward and sank his teeth into the vampire's throat, stifling any sounds that came from him. Lucian jerked his head and the vampire's throat was ripped out. The Death Dealer fell to the ground, dead in a sudden rush of crimson. Lucian spat out the blood and bits of flesh, leaving his beard dyed a dark red, before grabbing his daughter and once again began to race down the corridor.

Jelicho followed Lucian, but Antony stayed behind for a moment. Antony turned to Selene. "Run, now, before anyone sees you."

"But—" Selene stammered.

Antony pushed her away from himself. "Go!" he shouted. Antony turned and sprinted after his father, sister, and friend.

The Death Dealers that encountered the group were little and unorganized, and they met the same fate as the first as Lucian, Antony, Illa, Jelicho, and Tanis crusaded through the castle. Finally they reached the main antechamber. They sprinted down its length and threw open the thick doors that spilled out into the courtyard. There was no one in it. The absolute quiet was so unnerving that it halted their incredible pace. Cautiously, they prowled though the open space, searching for any sound, any movement. But as they inched their way to the main gates of the fortress the temptation of freedom slowly but surely quickened their steps and overdid their caution. Both Antony and Lucian heaved open the doors with Jelicho and Illa watching the empty courtyard.

Once the doors were open both Lucian and Antony started, causing Jelicho and Illa to turn and look at what was beyond the gate. There was an army of Death Dealers that had formed a half circle around the gate, blocking their exit. Their silver weapons flashed in the starlight as they moved them to point at their captives. The doors to the castle opened as well, and another squadron of Death Dealers exited and began walking though the courtyard. Lucian realized suddenly that this company had hidden in plain sight. They had been driving them through the castle to this place, where their trap had been set, sacrificing their own to insure that the group of invaders didn't escape through whatever secret way they had entered. The Death Dealers that were moving towards the group drew their swords and began driving them out through the gate and into the circle, closing it as they did so.

The gates snapped shut and the circle parted just slightly. Viktor walked smoothly through his soldiers and into the ring, flanked by both Kraven and Selene. "Lucian," said the vampire elder. "You have returned to me, and so soon," he paused and a snide smile spread across his face. "You are beginning to make me feel important."

Lucian growled low in his throat; so did Antony. Kraven responded by extending his fangs slightly and letting out a soft hiss. Jelicho moved closer to Illa who was now behind her father and brother. Illa also felt Tanis get closer to her as well. "Please don't say anything," Illa whispered to Andreas, trying not to move her lips, "please."

Viktor held up his hand and Kraven ceased. It was like a fuse had blown within Viktor, removing from his face even the faux pleasantness, leaving a hollow countenance chilled with intense disdain. "You, Lucian, and your children are surrounded by death." Lucian growled more loudly, but Viktor continued as if he hadn't heard them. "There is no escape. Surrender yourself to me Lucian, and I will let everyone else walk free."

"Today," Lucian retorted hotly, "What about the next day, and the day after, and the rest of their lives?"

Viktor folded his hand together and took a couple steps towards the lycan. "Lucian," Viktor said softly. "Put yourself in my position. I am a leader of a coven of vampires, and it is my duty to protect this coven from you, and from them."

"So do I," said Lucian just as softly, but there was more intensity lurking under his voice. "But there is no danger from them," indicating to his children.

Viktor's face became stone and his ice blue eyes burned within it. "Then you will die with them Lucian," said Viktor, "today."

Viktor drew his sword, and the silver encrusted circle began to shrink. Both Lucian and Jelicho dared not to turn. Even though the silver would injure them in their human forms, it would hurt them more if they were lycans. Lucian made a move, but Antony was quicker. He phased and went down on all fours before leaping at Viktor. Kraven stepped in front of his master, his fangs fully extended, his eyes so blue they were almost glowing. Antony, who was just as content to have Kraven to fight, plowed into him. Kraven rolled with the blow and forced them away from both of their commanders.

Lucian had drawn his weapon when Antony was in the air and took advantage of the split second distraction of Viktor as he watched Antony and Kraven slam into each other. But Viktor recovered swiftly and brought up his sword to parry Lucian's blow in time.

Illa had phased shortly after her twin, and in the dark she prowled the perimeter of the circle as Lucian and Viktor watched Antony and Kraven wrestle each other to the ground. When her father swung and her grandfather blocked his blow, Viktor had turned in such a way that his back was exposed to her. Illa dropped into a crouch and lunged at Viktor, her jaw dropped and aimed at the back of his neck. Illa felt the sharp pain on the side of her face before she realized she had been hit with a sword. It knocked her backwards and she landed on her side, her uncut cheek digging into the dirt. Illa picked herself up off the ground and looked down Selene's slender and shining blade, her blue eyes also shining as she pointed her sword at the hybrid. Illa knelt and picked up a spear that had lost its owner. She wiped the blood from her already healed face. It stained her jaw and her forearm. "I don't know who you are," said Illa darkly, "But you are in my way." Illa jumped at Selene, and Selene swung.

Jelicho, like Illa was prowling about the rim of the constricting ring of vampires. However, instead of facing inward, he was facing outward, fighting the column of Death Dealers and keeping them away from Lucian and, especially, Illa, as she fought the dark haired vampire who looked so like her mother. Jelicho had phased, against his instinctual trepidation of the act in this situation. He took advantage of the ferocity of Antony and Kraven's fight, following the pair of immortals biting and scratching each other. Jelicho killed one, maybe two if he was fortunate, when Kraven and Antony disoriented or knocked over the Death Dealers during their brawl. But, with every one Jelicho killed, three more swarmed him and began stabbing a slicing into his shoulders and calves with their silver blades. Finally, a spear stuck into Jelicho's shoulder and was caught underneath his collarbone. Jelicho reared turning back into his human form as he did so. "There's too many!" he cried holding the weapon at its base and easing it out of his skin.

Lucian, at Jelicho's call, jerked his head around. The circle had shrunk so much that the Death Dealers were practically on op of them. Jelicho paced around them, clutching his wounded shoulder. Illa and Selene were fighting behind Viktor, Selene with a sword, and Illa with a partially broken spear. Antony and Kraven were still locked on each other. Antony was on his hands and knees with Kraven halfway on his back, biting into his neck. Antony had hitched his arm backwards and his clawed hand was digging deeply into Kraven's hip, slowly but steadily bringing the vampire down beneath him.

Lucian's head suddenly snapped back. Viktor had grabbed the back of his head by his long brown hair and yanked him to the ground. Lucian rolled onto his back, and with his quick reflexes he kicked out at Viktor's legs causing the vampire to stagger. Lucian took his sword and jumped, aiming his blade at Viktor's face. Viktor blocked Lucian's blow with the broad side of his sword, one hand on the hilt, the other at the point of the blade. The vampire was older and stronger than the lycan, and began forcing Lucian's sword back towards him. Viktor eventually brought Lucian to his knees. In one swift movement, Viktor knocked Lucian's sword out of his grip, and smacked him on the side of his face with the flat side of his own. The corner of Lucian's eye burned from the silver. He stared up at Viktor though his blurred vision. Viktor put his foot roughly on Lucian's neck and Lucian gasped as he felt his windpipe being crushed. Viktor rested the tip of his blade over Lucian's heart. "Now Lucian," he said quietly, "you will die."

But a sound in the distant stayed his hand, a noise that halted the advancements of Viktor's Death Dealers, who turned and looked towards the trees. It was a soft sound but with every moment it grew louder and more threatening, like a symphony of snarling animals. Lucian's lycans burst through the trees. All of them were phased, their furry masses quivering from adrenaline and hate. Their numbers exceeded that of the vampires, their strength as well as in size. Leading them, mounted upon a horse, was Sonja, her sword strapped across her back.

Viktor and the other vampires barely registered the actual presence of the unforeseen threat before it charged them. The lycans quickly overtook Sonja and her horse. The Death Dealers disregarded the people that they were surrounding and turned around to face their assailants. The lycans smashed into the wall of Death Dealers, carving a path through their living barrier to those at the center. Sonja, in the fray, was urging her horse forward through the gaps, attempting to get to Lucian and Viktor. Lucian from his position of the ground saw Viktor's eyes flash at the sight of his daughter. He turned his head back towards Lucian.

Sonja zeroed in on her father's face when he looked at her. A second later, Sonja saw Lucian on the ground underneath Viktor's blade. "No!" she shouted. Sonja pulled her feet out of the stirrups, balancing her body on the saddle. Sonja leapt high into the air over the last of the blockade between her father, her husband, and herself. Viktor was forced to back away from Lucian, less Sonja plow into him from above. Sonja landed on the ground in a protective crouch over Lucian. Her sword fell into her hand. At the sight of her father, Sonja's fangs dropped and she hissed at him. Viktor reciprocated.

Antony had succeeded in clawing Kraven off of him and had pinned the vampire to the ground. Kraven lunged up at Antony and bit him hard and deep on the throat. Antony yelled and jerked backward but Kraven hung on. Antony put one hand on either side of Kraven's lips and pulled his jaw open, twisting it violently away from him. Kraven rolled with the blow, ending up on all fours. Antony stood, holding his hand against the wound on his jugular that, despite his healing abilities, was still pumping out a steady stream of blood over his palm. Kraven rolled his jaw, testing it, before picking himself up and lunging at Antony again.

Sonja and Viktor fought each other while Lucian got up off the ground. The pair was slowly inching towards Illa and Selene. Illa was taking most of the injuries between the two since Selene had the better weapon. However, in Illa's hybrid form she was faster and was able to avoid and evade most of Selene's advances. Illa dealt blows of her own, but held back, trying not to seriously injure or kill Selene. She remembered how Antony was with her, and was curious.

Sonja, on the other hand, was not aware of the connection between her son and Selene. When Sonja saw Illa taking most of the injuries, she dodged away from Viktor over to her daughter. Viktor attempted to follow Sonja, but Lucian cut him off and they reengaged each other. Sonja stepped between Selene and Illa, and for the first time saw Selene's face. Both of them stared at each other completely still with Illa looking on. Sonja's eyes suddenly grew cold. "Who are you?" she asked evenly.

Selene knew she was facing a much older and a much more powerful vampire. "Selene," she said, a slight tremor of fear creeping into her voice.

"Who made you?" asked Sonja with a chill in her words.

"Viktor."

Sonja lunged at Selene, wildly striking at her with her blade, the latter desperately parrying. Sonja drove Selene backwards until her back was pressed up against the stone wall of the fortress. Sonja cut the top of Selene's hand and Selene dropped her sword. Sonja with one hand pinned Selene's sword arm against the wall, and with the other hand she bent Selene's head, exposing her neck. Sonja bit Selene.

Sonja didn't know why she wanted to see the memories of the woman that had replaced her in her father's eyes, but she did, and Selene saw them in front of her own eyes as well as Sonja pulled them from her. Sonja saw all of her father's endearments spoken towards Selene. She saw that Selene slept in her old bedroom. Sonja saw that Viktor had allowed her to quickly rise through the tiers of power in the coven to a place at the top. She saw that Viktor loved her like a daughter. But Sonja dug deeper into Selene's mind. Sonja saw the moment where Viktor created Selene. Yet Selene saw, through Sonja's eyes, more than she had originally seen. She saw her new father in the cover of night slip into the stables and feed off her family's horses. Selene saw a lantern light shine on Viktor, and the vampire lunging at her human father, killing and feeding on him. Selene and Sonja watched Viktor, fueled by his lust for human blood creeping from room to room in Selene's house dispatching all those that were close to her heart: her mother, her sister, her brother-in-law, her two young nieces. Viktor stole into Selene's room and looked down at her. "Oh my daughter," he said, "my daughter." Viktor's fangs dropped and he gently drank from Selene. When Selene was all but dead, Viktor held her head and cut a deep gash in his throat. Viktor let Selene unconsciously drink from him, as tenderly as a mother would nurse and infant at her breast, before picking her up and departing her room, departing her life forever. Sonja jerked her mouth away from Selene's neck. They both looked at each other softly and sadly, sisters of the same dark father.

Lucian, as he dueled glanced over at Selene, Illa, and Sonja, and mid gaze he saw Jelicho, still very close to Illa and fighting anyone he could. Lucian heard a shrill scream. The horse that Sonja rode in on was trapped in the battle, its hooves flying madly about in the air. Lucian saw that even with his lycans' presence, all were still in danger. The lycans had surprise on their side for a moment, but the vampires were armed to the teeth with silver weapons. On top of that, both species carried a blood grudge for the other that would leave neither backing down. Lucian could not find Antony anywhere, but if he had an opportunity to save just one of his children he would take it, and Illa's best chance of escape was during the chaos.

"Jelicho!" Lucian shouted. Still dueling Viktor, now attempting to force him away from his child, "get Illa out of here."

Illa turned violently on her heel towards her father, pushing Jelicho away as he approached her. "No, I won't leave you!"

"Do as I say!" Lucian shouted fiercely to both of them. Jelicho nodded, phasing back into his human form. His eyes darted over to the horse in the distance. Illa resisted for a moment when Jelicho tried to make her move, but with one more fiery look from her father she relented.

"Stop her!" Viktor shouted when Illa with Jelicho started quickly moving away from him and realized they were trying to escape.

Kraven heard his master's call, and turned his head to look at the fleeing pair. Antony saw a knowing smile filled with cruelty and vengeance cross his lips. Antony's eyes widened. Before he could react, Kraven turned and punched Antony hard in the chest, sending him flying backwards and slamming him into the wall, momentarily stunned. Kraven sprinted at the pair, who had their backs towards him. He jumped onto Illa's back causing her to fall forward; away from the direction Jelicho was leading her. They slid over the earth for several feet from the force of Kraven's blow. Illa rolled over underneath him and looked into Kraven's face.

Illa heard Jelicho roar, as he phased and circled around, charging at the both of them with full speed. Kraven chuckled darkly and Illa saw his fingers curl around a spear tipped with silver. Illa tried to shout, but it was too little too late. Jelicho jumped to attack Kraven's back and at that moment Kraven turned, pointing his spear up at the lycan. Illa watched helplessly as Jelicho impaled himself on Kraven's spear, deep into his chest. Jelicho's body spasmed, then all too quickly became still.

Kraven, using his foot pulled the spear out of Jelicho and turned his weapon on Illa. Illa attempted to back up while still on the ground. Before Kraven could strike, a blur of bruise colored skin enveloped him, dragging him away by his neck. Kraven cried out once before Antony broke his neck with his jaw, shaking his body intensely.

Antony phased and rushed over to his sister who was staring numbly at Jelicho. Antony knelt down. "Are you alright?" he asked urgently, shaking her slightly. When Illa continued to stare over his shoulder, Antony looked over it. Antony sucked in a breath, stood, and walked over to examine Jelicho.

"Is he…" asked Illa softly.

Antony shook his head. "He's dead." Antony heard a high-pitched cry in the distance and saw that the horse had been killed by a vampire.

Lucian was tiring. His blows were getting slower and softer as his body grew wearier. Viktor smiled as he took advantage of this. "An immortal being, and still you are only human," he said. Viktor blocked a double-handed blow from Lucian that was coming over Lucian's head. Viktor put his hand over the tip of his sword and easily forced Lucian's sword back over his head, the lycan's hands bending backwards as he held onto the hilt. Lucian's sword ran down the center of his back and Viktor put more pressure on it so that it began to dig into Lucian's spine.

Sonja turned away from Selene when she heard Lucian cry out. "Enough," she said walking forward.

Viktor heard her approach and completely forgot about Lucian. He stared at Sonja with a bemused gaze as she approached him, sword in hand. They began circling each other "Are you going to kill me?" Viktor asked Sonja. "We've been here before," he said recalling the night that Sonja would have been killed, and would have killed Viktor if her hesitation had not allowed him to escape. Viktor subtly circled closer to Sonja. "We both know you don't have it in you." Viktor walked slowly towards his daughter, spreading his arms exposing his chest to her. Still, Sonja could not bring herself to swing at her father. Viktor huffed in her face. "We both know you can't."

Quicker than sight, Viktor grabbed Sonja by the wrist and turned her to where her back was against his body. His sword lay lazily across her throat. Everyone had stopped fighting, and vampire and lycan stood by each other, turning their heads to the center of the circle knowing that there this would end. Antony and Illa made their way to either side of their father helping him up off the ground as Viktor with Sonja moved forward.

"Lucian," said Viktor cold and businesslike, "this is you ultimatum. Die in her place, or I will kill her." There was a collective growl from the company of lycans gathered there.

"You would do it?" Viktor turned his head and looked at Selene, who had taken a few steps away from the wall. "You would kill your own daughter?"

Viktor's voice was significantly softer when he spoke to Selene. "This does not concern you, my child."

Idly dismissing Selene, Viktor turned back to Lucian, Illa, and Antony. "You know I am not bluffing," he said softly, "I'll kill her in front of you, I don't care. I would have killed her in front of you a long time ago, but you insisted this endure." Viktor paused. "Choose: a widow, or orphans."

Tanis, who had remained silent and hidden during the entire battle at Illa's request, shivered at his old master's words. His presence was near Jelicho's body. He moved closer to look at it. The lycan did not transform back when he had died, but Tanis remembered he had a handsome face, a kind face, a face that looked well beside Illa's. He was sorry that he had died. Tanis reached out for the wound on the lycan's chest, knowing full well that he couldn't touch it. But he could. Tanis felt the coarse fur underneath his invisible fingers, and the blood begin to run beneath Jelicho's skin. Tanis let out a long breath and saw Jelicho's chest expand and contract. Tanis sighed, and if it could have been seen, a peaceful look passed over his face. Tanis pressed his hand deeper into Jelicho's chest, and allowed himself to fall into Jelicho's body.

Lucian stared at his wife for a long moment, then pushed the hands of his children off of him.

"No," said Illa reaching for him.

Lucian turned and took his children's hands and laced them with those of their twin. He brought the three of them together in his arms and pressed his forehead to both Illa and Antony's simultaneously. Lucian stood there for a moment, then, without a word, he turned away from them and walked steadily towards Viktor. Illa tried to draw her father back to them, but Antony held onto her tightly, the only thing he could do, eventually drawing his sister into his chest.

Lucian got down onto his knees in front of Viktor, his eyes locked on Sonja's "I love you," he mouthed.

Viktor snarled at the gesture and roughly pushed Sonja who was sobbing and screaming. Viktor raised his sword above Lucian's head.

There was a roar, and suddenly Viktor was screaming as well, a louder sound, filled with intense pain. Jelicho had charged Viktor from the side and leapt wildly at him. Jelicho clamped down on Viktor's upper arm, and as he fell backwards he took Viktor's arm with him. Viktor's now detached and lifeless hand let go of his sword.

Someone else grabbed Viktor's sword while it was in the air. Selene's slash at Viktor was swift. Viktor's voice was abruptly silent. Selene's jump for the sword and her attack on Viktor ended with her landing lightly in between Sonja and Lucian, and Illa and Antony, the blade dyed halfway to the hilt in red.

A gash formed across Viktor's face, and his eyes lost their expression. Sonja, who had scrambled over to Lucian, turned her face into his chest so as not to see the top of Viktor's head slide off his body, and the rest of him crumble to the ground.

Nobody moved for a long while, staring at the body of Viktor. When everyone did begin to move, it was slow, cautious, as if in a daze. Selene moved over to Antony, and Illa moved away from the two of them. Illa walked past her parents, who were looking blankly at the person who had been a father to them at one point. She walked past the dismembered body of her grandfather. She walked past everyone till she reached Jelicho who had eased himself back into his human form. Jelicho was bleeding heavily, slumped against the stone wall.

"Jelicho?"

Jelicho smiled slightly. "Guess again." Jelicho spoke with Andreas' voice.

"Andreas!" Illa knelt over him. Andreas had Jelicho's body, but she saw Andreas' bright blue eyes shining through. Illa smiled, looking at him. "I see your eyes," she said softly, "I see your face."

But Illa's smile fell quickly from her face. She saw in Andreas' eyes pain and heard his rapid breathing. She realized suddenly that the silver had killed Jelicho, and now Jelicho's wound was killing Andreas.

"You're dying?"

Andreas nodded, weakening so quickly he was barely able to move his head.

Tears fell from Illa's eyes. "You can't die."

Andreas shushed her. "It is the only way, Illa. It is the only way, for me." Andreas felt himself fading. He reached for Illa's hand and she took it. "Illa," he whispered, "when you remember me, I hope you smile."

Illa smile a watery smile, bringing up his hand to her heart. She leaned down and kissed him.

Andreas breathed his last breaths into her mouth, contented sighs. "I feel you," he whispered.

Illa watched Andreas' eyes dim and depart all together, leaving Jelicho's, blank and empty, staring up at the endless sky.


	14. Fifth

Chapter Fourteen: Fifth

An eerie calm had passed over the world. A stillness that none of the gathered had seen before. The vampires had either dispersed or had been killed when their leader fell, and the lycans had drifted back to their stronghold in the woods. Only Lucian, Sonja, Antony, Illa, and Selene had stayed. The winter nights were long, and at the end of the battle the night was barely half over.

Selene and Antony stood apart from the others, Selene still holding Viktor's sliver sword in her hand. "Will you not come with us?" asked Antony.

Selene shook her head. "I have lived under someone for many years," she said, "and I believed what they said of the world. They told a lie, as it turns out. I want to see the truth, with my own eyes."

Antony nodded. "I understand."

Selene and Antony stepped forward and embraced, Antony subtly kissing Selene's raven hair. When they parted Antony did not speak of it, nor did Selene. Selene smiled at him, and turned departed her old life with Viktor's sword slung over her back.

Illa had stayed with Jelicho's body until the lycans took it away from her to take it back to their fortress. Only the remaining party knew of Tanis' role in the battle with Jelicho's body, and how his soul had died within it. Illa was sitting over by where Tanis had died, her body turned away from the others.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Illa." Illa turned and saw her brother hovering over her. "Come," he said. "They are here."

From the look in his eye, Illa knew to whom he was referring. Illa rose from the ground and followed her brother over to where their mother and father stood. Beyond them stood in their ethereal form the four remaining Hierarchy. Antony and Illa bowed at them.

"Talia," said Illa, her voice adopting the somewhat otherworldly tone of her previous life simply by being in their presence.

Talila looked at them, his face expressionless, his colorless eyes emitting his emotion to them. "Children."

"You have won a great victory today," he said, "perhaps, greater than your last."

Both Illa and Antony knew that there could be some deeper meaning to his words that only time could interpret for them, but both knew that that would be all they would be receiving from him on the subject.

"Has Jelicho passed on?" asked Antony.

This time it was Sharine who spoke. "It is on this matter, that we have come. I sensed his last moments in this world, and Constance saw him pass from her window and admired him. We have come to tell you that he had been selected to be our fifth."

Illa and Antony looked to the left of Sharine and saw that Jelicho was indeed standing beside her, as if he had been standing there all along, only they had failed to realize it. He looked wiser now, and his colorless eyes were calm and peaceful, as if he a lived all through time as the fifth of the Hierarchy.

"What of Tanis?" asked Illa. Almost out of habit, or in forgotten instinct she turned towards the person who would answer the question, which, in this case, was Constance.

Constance nodded at her. "He is at peace."

Illa nodded back at her, needing no more of an answer with that.

"Does this please you," asked Talia.

Both Illa and Antony nodded before they spoke. "Yes."

"Then farewell children. There is no more that needs to be said. May you live long lives." And with that, they were gone, leaving Antony and Illa knowing that those were the last words they may ever say to them.

Sonja and Lucian had remained silent through the entire exchange, spellbound, believing they were not worthy to speak to such beings. When they had departed, they left their children for a moment and ventured into the castle together. Lucian and Sonja placed Viktor inside his coffin alongside the other Elders Marcus, and Amelia. Lucian and Sonja had carried all three coffins into the dungeons of the castle and hid them together in one of the deepest lycan cells they could find. "No one will ever find them here," said Lucian

Sonja nodded silently staring at her father's remains though the glass. Lucian looked at her and saw that she was restraining her sorrow. He came over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It is no sin to mourn your father," he whispered gently, "he was a father to me too, for a time."

Sonja sank into his chest and allowed Lucian's arms to support her, letting the silent tears fall down her face.

Lucian sighed after a minute. "Come, let us leave this dark place."

Sonja nodded and allowed Lucian to lead her out of the dungeons. Lucian locked and barricaded the door with loose stones, and buried the key deep in the forest as he Sonja and their children returned to their home.

The lycans were celebrating when they returned but all four of them walked past it, mother and father, and brother and sister, departing to their own ways after a moment. Sonja and Lucian went to their bedchamber. Lucian did not make love to his wife. He simply held her and she held him until they drifted off into the first peaceful sleep they had had in each other's arms since they first pledged their love to each other over a century ago.

Illa and Antony sat on the roof of the fortress above the muted festivities below. Antony wrapped his arm around Illa. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes," she responded. "Are you?"

Antony nodded. "Yes." They were silent for a moment. "We have come full circle, haven't we sister."

"Indeed," responded Illa, "now we see our true beginning."

Illa and Antony said no more. They held each other as they watched the sun rise.

Finis al Fine

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Yay! See I told you I'd finish this! Thank you for reading, it's been a blast writing this, and I will miss it. For all of you who waited and waited and waited for my lazy self to finish this you are wonderful people and wonderful fans, and I truly thank you for your loyalty and your patience. Hope to read your reviews soon. Peace out!


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